The Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has named Dr. Paula Cohen as the next associate dean for research and graduate education, effective February 1, 2024. Cohen takes over the position previously held by Dr. Robert Weiss, who served in the role since 2017, and has taken on a new senior associate dean position in the Graduate School. Cohen, professor of genetics, director of the Cornell Reproductive Sciences Center and associate vice provost for life sciences, has focused her research on reproductive biology, specifically meiosis in mammals.

“Dr. Cohen brings a wealth of experience to this position, both in her academic leadership roles and her success in scientific research and mentoring graduate students and others trained in her laboratory,” says Lorin Warnick, D.V.M., Ph.D.’94, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “We are very fortunate to have her join the college leadership team and look forward to the programs and initiatives she will lead.”

Cohen received her Ph.D. in reproductive physiology at the University of London, England, and took a postdoctoral position at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, where she studied the regulation of gonadal function in males and females, and the maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. During this time, she become interested in germ cell biology and genome integrity and transitioned into this area to study the roles of DNA repair proteins in mammalian meiosis. She joined the faculty of the Department of Genetics at Albert Einstein College in 2000, and then in 2004 was recruited to CVM's Department of Biomedical Sciences. In 2007, she was promoted to the rank of associate professor and then to full professor in 2013. In 2018, she became associate vice provost for life sciences. At Cornell, Cohen was the first to establish a Cornell-wide center encompassing clinicians and scientists from CVM and from the Weill Cornell Medicine by establishing the Cornell Reproductive Sciences Center.

As associate vice provost, Cohen has worked on many initiatives to upgrade and improve core facilities in the life sciences, and to provide resources for research centers across the Ithaca and New York City campuses of Cornell. She initiated the first Postdoctoral fellow parental leave program to provide financial resources to offset loss of productivity for postdocs choosing to focus on their families. Since 2018, she has served as a lead consultant for the design of lab space within Atkinson Hall, currently under construction, paving the way for the new Center for Cancer Immunology and the new state-of-the-art Integrated Disease Genomics Technology (IDG-Tech) Core. In the past year, Cohen has assumed responsibility of the Academic Integration Program, providing funding for research collaborations and symposia between the campuses of Cornell, awarding over $1,000,000 in funding to facilitate and encourage cross-campus interactions. To ensure a smooth transition, Cohen will continue to help with the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI) activities as a new associate vice provost is recruited and afterwards as needed to keep projects moving forward.

“While we will all miss her positive energy and problem-solving spirit in the OVPRI leadership team, we look forward to seeing Paula thrive in her new role in her home college’s leadership team,” says Dr. Krystyn Van Vliet, vice president for research and innovation at Cornell University. “We will also continue to connect with Paula in her directorship of Cornell Center Reproductive Sciences Center, one of the cross-campus interdisciplinary research centers administered within OVPRI.”

Additionally, Cohen’s scientific research has yielded significant understanding in the realm of mammalian reproductive biology, infertility and novel approaches to male contraception. Her work has been funded by the NIH, the Gates Grand Challenge Explorations, and The March of Dimes grant. She has co-authored over 70 papers, served as a regular and ad hoc member on several different NIH Study Sections, and has been recognized by several national awards, including Charles J. Epstein Down Syndrome Research Award from the National Down Syndrome Society, the SUNY Chancellors Award for Excellence, and the Jerry Strauss Beacon Award from the Woods Hole Marine Biological Institute’s Frontiers in Reproduction Program for advancing the research careers of young scholars in the reproductive sciences. Most recently, Cohen was elected as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2022.

In her new role as associate dean at the college, Cohen plans to leverage her unique understanding of the collaborative culture across the Ithaca and New York City campuses to encourage and facilitate inter-disciplinary research projects involving faculty within the College of Veterinary Medicine with interests in animal disease, fundamental biology of animal systems and the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools to improve human and animal health. In addition, her goal is to enhance graduate, veterinary and postdoctoral education at the college by exposing trainees to the very latest technical innovations in biomedical research.

Written by Lauren Cahoon Roberts