In Memory of Ted Cohn

Dr. Theodore E. Cohn, Professor of Bioengineering and Vision Science, passed away on May 25, 2006 at Alta Bates Hospital in Oakland following a three-year battle with lymphoma. He was 64.

Professor Cohn was one of the first faculty to join the new Department of Bioengineering, as well as a member of the UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering since its inception, and a Professor of Vision Science in the School of Optometry. Ted was a popular teacher, dedicated mentor, and valued colleague to students and faculty across departments, colleges and campuses.

On January 26, 2007 the Department of Bioengineering and School of Optometry held a Vision Science and Society Symposium to honor the work and life of Professor Cohn. Streaming videos of the presentations at that event are available on the symposium page.

Two memorial funds have been created in Ted's memory. One fund is to support underprivileged undergraduates in their research projects. Contact Avery Cohn ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for information on how to donate. Another fund supports Vision Science graduate students in the visual detection field, and receives matching funds from the University. Contact Stanley Klein ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for donation information.

In the page below are memories of Ted submitted by colleagues, friends and students.

Add your own remembrance of Professor Cohn

I remember Ted's trips down to UC San Diego to work with Don MacLeod and others in the Vision Lab there with great fondness. Ted was notable to me for never putting on any academic airs: he was just a very warm and enthusiastic individual who seemed to draw great pleasure from interacting with senior and junior researchers, alike. I've only great memories of all my interactions with him.
     Harvey Smallman

I always looked forward to seeing Ted at our Department faculty meetings. He was well prepared, gave a crisp presentation, and usually delivered some humorous zinger with a perfectly straight face. I hope some of his style has rubbed off on me.
     Professor David Rempel

I will always remember Ted’s kindness on my visits to Berkeley. My rough Ozzie exterior often excites ambiguous or challenging responses, but Ted was unfailingly kind and considerate.
     Jack Pettigrew

I didn't know him well. I simply remember some great conversations over the years in Florida and Berkeley. I'm grateful to have known him.
     David Peterzell

In the early 1980's Ted and I spent some time together making trips to visit Ralph Freeman in hospital after his car accident. We had great chats about science and life. These were formative years for me; I was only just beginning to grasp the kinds of scientific concepts that Ted had advanced so elegantly. But it was a bit of personal advice that I have always cherished from those days. It was shortly before my 1st child was born, and I was nervous. Ted told me that the best kept secret in life is the feelings that a parent experiences for his/her child. He put it more elegantly than that, but he did refer to as "the best kept secret in life." He explained nuances of loving and caring tenderly in a way that gave me a lot more confidence. Later, when Josh was born, I experienced the rapid, overwhelming metamorphosis of love and devotion that Ted described. I have always been grateful to Ted for articulating this. I have tried to pass on this bit of inspiration to other nervous first-time parents over the past 20+ years. I saw Ted at VSS a couple of years ago. I'm really glad I did because I got to thank him for this. What a great man. What a tremendous loss for our community.
     Michael Shadlen

Ted Cohn participated in a program funded by Fulbright for academic exchange between U.C., Berkeley and Universidad de Chile between 2002-2004. He visited Santiago, Chile in December 2004 and was an invited speaker at the Summer School in Computational Intelligence at the School of Engineering, U. de Chile. He participated in two research projects. The first one to test the validity of the classical vibrotactile threshold and the second to demonstrated experimentally that sub-threshold stimulus detection can be enhanced relative to the stochastic resonance prediction, by using the noise to reduce the observer’s uncertainty. Ted was one of the greatest scholars that I have met in my life and working with him was a privilege. He was creative, ingenious and enthusiastic in looking for methods to discover new scientific knowledge. His enquiring mind made him a perfect partner to work with in research. Besides Ted’s expertise, he was friendly and opened to discuss and explain his points of view with colleagues and students. Ted probably touched many people around the world especially through all the international students he advised. From this corner of the world we will keep the best memories from our interaction in the past few years. I know that with Ted’s departure I lost a good friend and all of us lost a great human being.
     Claudio A. Perez

Ted and I had an ongoing monthly routine. He would come into the Business Office each month to retrieve his Direct Deposit statement and say, "Larry, can you believe it, they're still paying me." I would assure him I was doing my best to correct this oversight; it was one of my greatest failures. What I found truly awesome was the manner in which Ted handled coming face to face with his possible death. While mustering every ounce of willpower to confront death, he nonetheless took the time to ensure that all the t's were crossed and the i's dotted so that his family would have the best possible future if he lost. I only hope to have half his courage in facing the great voyage into the unknown. Bon Voyage Ted.
     Larry M. Jones

Late in the Spring 2006 The School of Optometry lost a dear friend and professional colleague- Professor Ted Cohn. Ted came to the School of Optometry in the early 1970's and had a most productive career on the campus. He taught alongside many of us and had a very special interest in his students, both in the Optometry and PhD program in Vision Science. Our family pets were related; Ted, not surprisingly to those who knew him professionally, called their dog, from our dog's litter, "d prime". Students will always remember with fondness Ted's annual special class "celebrations" of Fechner's birthday-- a famous person to vision students, and others. Ted was internationally known for his vision research. To students and close colleagues, I think that some of the recent words of Ted's close friend Dan Fingerman, at the time of Ted's death, are still in our minds. "Ted died peacefully at Alta Bates Hospital, shortly after 5:00 Thursday afternoon May 25, surrounded by his family and close friends. Even in his last illness, Ted performed as a mentor and magnificent teacher to those of us privileged to be around him, showing all of us, not telling us, how to die with the same understated grace and dignity with which he lived his life". We all lost a good friend and colleague at the School. - Tony Adams Professor, and Dean Emeritus UCB School of Optometry
     Tony Adams

Ted was my good friend, colleague and collaborator. His wise council on numerous scientific issues has been an invaluable aid to me over the years. It was a continuing point of pride when his name come up in conversation to be able to say “He was my first graduate student”. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was a lie. I learned more from Ted than he learned from me. Our friendship goes back 40 years when a dashing, handsome young man driving a Porsche sports car arrived at my doorstep with a request. He had an idea for a Ph.D. thesis and wondered whether there was a possibility he could work on it in my lab. He wanted to do an ROC analysis of retinal ganglion cell messages. Quite frankly I had no idea of what he hoped to do. Not only did I not understand his goals, but, in addition, as a young assistant professor at the University of Michigan, I had only a single experimental room. Finding space and equipment for a separate independent set of experiments seemed out of the question. Ted assured me not to worry, just leave it to him. As he promised he designed, built and assembled the apparatus he needed. He then proceeded to do the experimental work in the evenings after I had gone home for the day. In the end, not only did he educate me about the importance of what he was doing, but he also produced a highly original, completely independent piece of work. His PhD thesis for the first time applied ROC analysis to studying the information that a sensory organ (the eye) sends to the brain. It was no surprise when on the basis of this work he was offered a position in Optometry at the University of California, Berkeley. Four years ago he called me to tell me he was going to be unable to attend my retirement party because they had discovered he had cancer and were advising immediate treatment. I had no doubt about Ted’s ability to conquer this obstacle. It still seems so unfair that he was not able to do this. With much love for him and for his family, I grieve his loss and am grateful that he was a part of my life
     Daniel G. Green