Ira Stephen Cohen

Ira was a brilliant, kind, generous and humble man who will be missed dearly by all those who knew him. He was born and raised in Brooklyn to Philip (who was an attorney and accountant) and Miriam (a college graduate during a time when that was rare for a woman). His maternal uncle introduced both him and his brother to tennis, which caused a many year long rivalry (which had since resolved into a beautiful, loving and supportive relationship). In his senior year of High School, he reached the finals of the NYC tennis championships. His tennis skills and his extraordinary brains kept the principal of Sheepshead Bay High School from expelling him after many ADHD fueled verbal assaults on teachers who did not understand the material as well as he did. Ira went on to play tennis at Columbia University where he was exposed to Columbia’s core curriculum. Something he never stopped telling his children about it until the day he died.

The other thing that tennis did for him was that he met his wife, Shelly, at the Marine Park tennis courts on July 20,1967, when he was 19, but she was three weeks before her 16th birthday. According to his telling, by the time he realized that she was only in high school, he was hopelessly in love. They still celebrated this anniversary every year. His passion for tennis continued, playing three to four times per week to the end.

After college, he went to Medical School but dreaded the thought of practicing medicine. Luckily, he was quickly offered a space in NYU’s MD-PHD program, where he completed both degrees in five years. After getting an offer of a post-doctoral fellowship to go to Oxford, his wife convinced him to forgo a medical internship, and he never looked back. Lifelong friendships were forged in Oxford before returning to New York as an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics in the School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. He was continuously grant funded between 1976 when he became an assistant professor to the present day when he held the honor of Distinguished Professor. He held numerous patents on things ranging from biological pacemakers to cancer fighting and anti-arrhythmic drugs. But he always felt that his greatest accomplishments were his children and his grandchildren, of whom he was very proud.

We were all fortunate to be able to celebrate Ira’s academic accomplishment a few short weeks ago, when his former students (which he always treated as colleagues) organized a symposium in his honor in which their scientific achievements were highlighted as well as descriptions of how Ira influenced their careers. What was most exceptional was the description of what Ira taught them outside of science. Those who came to his lab from outside the country were made to feel at home and treated like family. One of his colleagues who is currently a chair of a department of engineering said that when faced with either a personal or academic decision, he often thinks: What would Ira do? Putting people first without ever expecting anything in return would be Ira’s response.

He is survived by his wife Shelly Cohen of almost 53 years, his brother Howard Cohen, his children, Melissa Cohen and Daniel Cohen and his 3 grandchildren, Charlie Cohen and Adela and Frida Vazquez-Cohen.

Shiva will be at the Cohen house at the following times:

Wednesday after the burial at around 5:00 pm.

Thursday and Friday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Sunday 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM