I. Bernard Cohen

Born on 1 March 1914 in New York City, I. Bernard Cohen was a historian of science, Harvard University professor, and prolific writer. Cohen earned his BS in mathematics from Harvard in 1937, and in 1947 he received his PhD in the history of science—the first American ever to receive a doctorate in that field of study. From 1942 until his retirement in 1984, Cohen taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Harvard. While still a graduate student, he worked as an assistant to George Sarton, the founding editor of Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society. In 1947 Cohen became managing editor of Isis, and in 1953, he succeeded Sarton as editor-in-chief. Cohen published more than 20 books and 150 articles over his 60-year career. He specialized in the physical sciences of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially the work of Isaac Newton. Among his most important works was the monumental, 900-page, variorum edition of Newton’s Principia, titled Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Harvard University Press, 1972), which he coedited with historian Alexandre Koyré and Latinist Anne Whitman. Cohen served as president of the US chapter of the History of Science Society (1961–62) and of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science (1968–71). In 1974 he was awarded the History of Science Society’s George Sarton Medal, and in 1986, its Pfizer Prize. Cohen continued to write and publish until his death in 2003. (Photo credit: Charles Eames, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection, Gift of Susan Johnson)

Date in History: 1 March 1914