Rate My Professor Paula Cohen

Paula Cohen, PhD, is Professor of Genetics in the Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. She serves as Director of the Cornell Reproductive Sciences Center (CoRe) and as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Cohen earned her PhD in reproductive physiology from the University of London in 1992, studying the endocrine regulation of implantation. She completed postdoctoral research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she focused on immune cell regulation of reproduction and later transitioned to germ cell biology and genome integrity. She joined the faculty at Albert Einstein in 2000 and was recruited to Cornell University in 2004, advancing to full Professor in 2013. Prior to her current roles, she served as Associate Vice Provost for Life Sciences from 2018 until June 2024.

Dr. Cohen’s research centers on the molecular mechanisms of meiosis in mammals, including crossing over, DNA repair, gene regulation during spermatogenesis, and the roles of non-coding RNAs, with applications to fertility, pregnancy loss, and contraception. She has received continuous funding from the NIH, March of Dimes, National Down Syndrome Society, Hereditary Diseases Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2006, she established the Cornell Reproductive Sciences Center and has led a P50 center grant from the NICHD since 2009. Dr. Cohen has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and has mentored many graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduates. Her honors include the Cornell Provost’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship (2009), the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence (2017), election as an AAAS Fellow (2022), the Jerry Strauss Beacon Award for Mentorship (2022), and the SSR Mentoring Award (2024). She has chaired the 2020 Gordon Research Conference on Meiosis and serves in editorial roles for journals including PLoS Genetics.