Marvin L. Cohen

M. L. Cohen and S. G. Louie, Fundamentals of Condensed Matter Physics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. TEXTBOOK. M. L. Cohen, " Modeling solids and its impact on science and technology," Handbook of Materials Modeling, eds. W. Andreoni and S. Yip (Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 2018), p. 1.

M. L. Cohen, “Emergence in condensed matter physics,” in Visions of Discovery: New Light on Physics, Cosmology, and Consciousness,” eds. R.Y. Chiao, M. L. Cohen, A.J. Leggett, W. D. Phillips, and C.L. Harper, Jr. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010) p. 496.

M. L. Cohen, “Overview: A standard model of solids,” Conceptual Foundations of Materials: A Standard Model for Ground- and Excited-State Properties, vol. eds. S. G. Louie, M. L. Cohen, (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2006) p. 1.

Marvin Cohen is married to Suzy Locke Cohen who is an Art Advisor. Cohen and his late wife Merrill Leigh Gardner Cohen (deceased 1994) had a son Mark Cohen (born 1963) and a daughter Susan Cohen Crumpler (born 1965). His grandchildren are Jake Crumpler, Luke Crumpler, and Jessica Crumpler. Cohen has played the clarinet since age 13.

M. L. Cohen and J. R. Chelikowsky, Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Semiconductors. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1988. TEXTBOOK.

W. A. de Heer, W. D. Knight, M. Y. Chou, and M. L. Cohen, "Electronic shell structure and metal clusters," in Solid State Physics, Vol. 40, ed. H. Ehrenreich and D. Turnbull. New York: Academic Press, 1987. p. 93.

M. L. Cohen and J. R. Chelikowsky, "Pseudopotentials for semiconductors," in Handbook on Semiconductors, Vol. 1, ed. W. Paul. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1982. p. 219.

M. L. Cohen, "Electrons at interfaces," in Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics, Vol. 51, eds. L. Marton and C. Marton. New York: Academic Press, 1980. p. 1.

J. D. Joannopoulos and M. L. Cohen, "Theory of short-range order and disorder in tetrahedrally bonded semiconductors," in Solid State Physics, Vol. 31, eds. H. Ehrenreich, F. Seitz, and D. Turnbull (Academic Press, New York, 1976), p. 71.

M. L. Cohen and V. Heine, "The fitting of pseudopotentials to experimental data and their subsequent application," in Solid State Physics, Vol. 24, eds. H. Ehrenreich, F. Seitz, and D. Turnbull. New York: Academic Press, 1970. p. 37.

M. L. Cohen, "Superconductivity in low-carrier-density systems: Degenerate semiconductors," in Superconductivity, ed. R. D. Parks. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1969. p. 615.

Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, 1965–67. Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1969. Guggenheim Fellow, 1978–79, 1990–91. Oliver E. Buckley Prize for Solid State Physics (American Physical Society), 1979. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 1980. U.S. Department of Energy Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Solid State Physics, 1981,1990. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1993. Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, 1994. Outstanding Performance Award, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1995. Faculty Research Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley, 1996–97. Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science,1997. 2001 National Medal of Science (Presidential award, 2002). Elected member, American Philosophical Society, 2003. Awarded (with Steven G. Louie) the 2003 Foresight Institute Richard P. Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology. Awarded Doctorat Honoris Causa, University of Montreal, 2005. Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum, 2007. Berkeley Citation, University of California, 2011. Dickson Prize in Science, 2012. Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2013. Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2014. Von Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society, 2014. Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate, 2016. Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics 2017.

From 1963 to 1964, Cohen was a Member of the Technical Staff with a postdoctoral position in the theoretical physics group at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. where his mentors were primarily Philip W. Anderson and Conyers Herring. He joined the faculty of the University of California in 1964 (Assistant Professor of Physics 1964–66; Associate Professor 1966–69; Professor 1969–1995; University Professor 1995–present; Professor of the Graduate School, 2010–present.) He supervised approximately fifty graduate students and fifty postdoctoral researchers since 1964. He was President of the American Physical Society in 2005.

For electronic structure, in the mid 1960’s it became possible to use pseudopotentials for accurately computing band structures for 14 semiconductors at a time when little was known about their electronic structure. This advance was revolutionary as it explained optical properties of semiconductors in the visible and UV range and led to the first pictures of electron density and bonds in semiconductors. These results were later confirmed experimentally. This work also led to the creation of the field of surface calculations of electronic structure using the invention of the supercell. This was followed by the development of a total energy scheme which initiated a new era of first principles predictions of structural, vibrational, and high-pressure properties of solids using only atomic numbers and atomic masses as input.

Cohen was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His parents Elmo and Molly (Zaritsky) Cohen were both born in Montreal and his grandparents, all of Jewish descent, emigrated to Canada from the Baltic States and Russia. He, together with his parents and younger brother, Gordon, moved to San Francisco, CA in 1947 where he attended Roosevelt Junior High School and George Washington High School. He was naturalized a U.S. citizen, November, 1953. He attended the University of California, Berkeley (A.B. in physics, 1957) and the University of Chicago (M.S. in physics 1958 and Ph.D. in physics completed 1963, conferred 1964). His Ph.D. thesis advisor was James C. Phillips.

Marvin Lou Cohen (born March 3, 1935) is an American theoretical physicist. He is a University Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Cohen is a leading expert in the field of Condensed Matter Physics. He is highly cited and most widely known for his seminal work on the electronic structure of solids.