Elaine Cohen

On 19 October 2025, Elaine Cohen finished making her inimitable mark on the world. Born on 17July 1946, in Neptune, New Jersey, to Miriam and Samuel Cohen, Elaine grew up in Lakewood, New Jersey. In high school there, she met Richard (Rich) Riesenfeld, her future husband, mental sparring partner, longtime research collaborator, and biggest professional supporter. She studied at Vassar College, where she dual majored in Mathematics and Physics (BA, 1968), and then at Syracuse University where she earned a PhD in Mathematics in 1974. After marrying Rich in 1974, she joined the University of Utah as a non-tenure-track faculty member in the Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics. Her research focused on computer graphics and geometric modeling, fields that were then in their infancy. She rose through the faculty ranks in Computer Science and was ultimately appointed University Distinguished Professor in 2021.

During her career, Elaine became internationally recognized for her fundamental contributions in mathematics, computer science and related areas. She published over 150 works in refereed scientific journals and proceedings, supervised 21 PhD students, and was a Principal Investigator for more than 25 research grants. Together with Rich, she created the Alpha_1 project, which for 20 years advanced computational capabilities for designing, representing, and analyzing complex freeform geometric structures. She served the domestic community for five years (1999–2004) as a member of the prestigious National Research Council Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Her enthusiasm for exploring new ideas with colleagues led to fruitful extended visits to universities across the U.S. and Europe. In 1979, during the first of many extended visits to the University of Oslo, Norway, she, Rich, and Tom Lyche published the seminal “Oslo Algorithm,” which spurred the ubiquitous use of splines in computer-aided geometric design and manufacturing. In 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Oslo and elected as a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

As a pioneer in her field, and for many years the only woman among the regular faculty in the University of Utah College of Engineering, she was honored to be an invited speaker at the inaugural Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 1994. Elaine received many awards throughout her career recognizing the importance of her contributions, including the Pierre Bézier Award (2009) and the John A. Gregory Memorial Award (2014), the two highest honors in her field.

The tenacity and insightfulness with which Elaine undertook challenges could be easily underestimated by those who did not know her well, such as a professor in graduate school who categorically dismissed her career aspirations in mathematics, colleagues who often assumed her accomplishments were actually those of Rich, and even people at the sprinkler supply store who could not countenance the proficiency she had acquired from having personally rebuilt her large home sprinkler system. Yet, Elaine did not pursue uncommon endeavors to prove anything to anyone. Rather, much as her left-handedness had resisted the dominant right-handed environmental pressures of her childhood, Elaine simply could not live as anyone but herself. This was one of many ways in which she was an invaluable role model for those around her, especially for her daughters and students. She fought for those under her wing to have opportunities to grow, learn, and live as themselves.

Indeed, Elaine was fully, unflaggingly dedicated to her family. Elaine fondly recalled working in her father’s print shop and going out to lunch with him afterward on Saturdays. She also remembered with gratitude that, although her father had not had an extensive formal education, when she was applying to colleges, he drove her to Rich’s house where she could get help with her essays from Rich’s kind father. Then he took out loans to support her first year at Vassar, after which she was awarded a scholarship. Despite their modest family means, Elaine’s mother had guaranteed that Elaine and her sister would have music lessons. In her youth Elaine ardently studied violin and later flute. As a mother, she then, in turn, encouraged her daughters to learn and listen to music all their lives. She also passionately believed that children should grow up with pets. Consequently, she successively brought into the family several wonderful standard poodles and a temperamental Siamese cat.

Elaine took pleasure in supporting her daughters’ dreams and enjoyment of life however she could. From young ages, her daughters often accompanied her and Rich on international and domestic travels for work. She gardened and baked with them (for her, nothing beat chocolate), custom designed and sewed their bat mitzvah dresses, helped them find apartments and houses, and supported them financially, while they studied and worked jobs that favored social impact over remuneration. She also devoted her boundless energy to young people beyond her daughters, including her students, friends of her children, and children of her friends. By giving advice, instruction, and encouragement, she often lit a spark in them. Thus she nurtured a wide network of loyal beneficiaries.

Most of her last two years were consumed in a courageous battle against a very rare, deadly cancer.

Cherished surviving family members include Richard Riesenfeld, her husband of 51 years, her daughters Samantha Riesenfeld (spouse Lorenzo Orecchia) and Rebecca Dannels (spouse Joseph Dannels), grandchildren Elia Orecchia, Ari Orecchia, Joaquin Dannels, and Kyle Dannels, “grand-dogs” (Elaine’s term) Zuma and Maggie, and a close, wonderfully supportive, extended family. Elaine was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Rosalind Meskin. A memorial service will be held in December, details of which are forthcoming.

To honor her scientific and professional impact, a fund has been established through AnitaB.org to support women in technology. We welcome contributions of all sizes, which can be made via the following link: https://anitab.org/elaine-cohen-memorial-fund