Frederick R. Cohen Explained

Frederick Ronald Cohen^[1] (1945 – January 16, 2022)^{[2] [3]} was an American mathematician working in algebraic topology.

Education and career

Fred Cohen was born in 1945 in Chicago. He received a BA from Brandeis University in 1967 and a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1972. He taught at the University of Northern Illinois until 1979 and then at the University of Kentucky. In 1989, he settled at the University of Rochester, where he spent the rest of his career.^{[2] [4]}

Mathematics

Cohen did influential work in several areas of homotopy theory. His thesis concerned the topology of configuration spaces, a topic he came back to throughout his life, with connections to braid groups and mapping class groups. This was followed by a series of influential papers on unstable homotopy groups of spheres with John Moore and Joseph Neisendorfer.^[5] Late in his life, Cohen studied polyhedral products in a series of articles with Bahri, Bendersky, and Gitler.^[6]

Selected publications

• Book: Cohen . Frederick R. . Lada . Thomas J. . May . J. Peter . J. Peter May . The Homology of Iterated Loop Spaces . 1976 . Lecture Notes in Mathematics . 533 . Springer-Verlag . Berlin . 3540379851 . 10.1007/BFb0080464 . free.
• Cohen . Frederick R. . Moore . John C. . Neisendorfer . Joseph A. . Torsion in homotopy groups . The Annals of Mathematics . January 1979 . 109 . 1 . 121–168 . 10.2307/1971269. 1971269 .
• Cohen . Frederick R. . Moore . John C. . Neisendorfer . Joseph A. . The double suspension and exponents of the homotopy groups of spheres . The Annals of Mathematics . November 1979 . 110 . 3 . 549–565 . 10.2307/1971238. 1971238 .
• Bahri . Anthony . Bendersky . Martin . Cohen . Frederick R. . Gitler . Samuel . Samuel Gitler Hammer . The polyhedral product functor: A method of decomposition for moment-angle complexes, arrangements and related spaces . . October 2010 . 225 . 3 . 1634–1668 . 10.1016/j.aim.2010.03.026 . 16069626 .

Personal life

In the mid 1970's, Cohen battled a spinal tumor. Although he survived with the help of radiation therapy, he was partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. Starting in 2013, he used a wheelchair.^[2]

Cohen was survived by his wife Kathleen and two daughters.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Frederick Ronald Cohen . Mathematics Genealogy Project . North Dakota State University . 12 August 2022.
2. News: Frederick R. Cohen, professor of mathematics has passed away . 12 August 2022 . University of Rochester Department of Mathematics News & Events . January 21, 2022.
3. News: Dr. Frederick R. Cohen Obituary . 12 August 2022 . Rochester Democrat and Chronicle . January 17, 2022.
4. News: Marquis Who's Who Honors Frederick R. Cohen, PhD, with Inclusion in Who's Who in the World . 12 August 2022 . 24-7 Press Release Newswire . November 9, 2020 . en.
5. Levi . Ran . The work of Fred Cohen . Geometry & Topology Monographs . 7 April 2009 . 13 . 529–546 . 10.2140/gtm.2008.13.529 . 0904.1315. 16382169 .
6. Book: Bahri . Anthony . Bendersky . Martin . Cohen . Frederick R. . Handbook of homotopy theory . 2019 . Chapman and Hall/CRC . Boca Raton, Florida . 9781351251624 . Chapter 3: Polyhedral products and features of their homotopy theory . 10.1201/9781351251624-3 . 1903.04114 . 119611569 . https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9781351251624-3/polyhedral-products-features-homotopy-theory-anthony-bahri-martin-bendersky-frederick-cohen.