Paul Cohen

Paul Joseph Cohen was an American mathematician and logician who worked in set theory. He served as a university teacher at Stanford University, the University of Rochester, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Cohen is noted for his work on forcing. He was educated at Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn College, and the University of Chicago, where his doctoral advisor was Antoni Zygmund.

Born in Long Branch in 1934, Cohen received the Fields medal, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Medal of Science, and the Bôcher Memorial Prize. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He died in Stanford, Palo Alto, in 2007. Cohen was influenced by Georg Cantor and had an Erdős number of 5. His doctoral student was Peter Sarnak. He spoke English.