Cohen organized problem-solving seminars for graduate students preparing for the Ph.D. qualifying exam. For this work he referred to himself as “the department’s Stanley Kaplan.”[1]
In 1960, the American Physical Society appointed him a fellow.[9][10]
In 1962, Cohen worked with colleagues George Stranahan and Robert W. Craig to establish and raise funds for the Aspen Center for Physics to foster collaborative research among physicists from different sub-fields, independent of any one university or institution. Together they generated initial support from the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Needmor Fund to finance the center's first building.[11] A historical retrospective of the ACP, written upon its fiftieth anniversary, suggested that Cohen's role in the center's establishment was that he "found the talent" – that is, drew in the physicists – for its early scientific programs.[12] In 1963 he recruited Hans Bethe into the institute.[1]
In 2011, Cohen completed a textbook entitled, Classical Mechanics: a Critical Introduction, in collaboration with fellow physicist Larry Gladney, who prepared the solutions manual.[13]
Mountain climbing
Cohen was also mountain climber. In 1963, with two other climbers, he completed the first ascent of the north face of Capitol Peak.[1] Also two rock-climbing routes near Aspen, Colorado are named after him: Cohen's Crown and Cohen's Last Problem.[1]
