Miriam Cohen is an Israeli mathematician and a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev whose main areas of research are Hopf algebras, quantum groups and Noncommutative rings.
Biography
Miriam Cohen was born in Ramat Gan, British Mandate of Palestine. Her parents Dr. Hanna and Jusin Hirsch fled Nazi Germany to Palestine in 1939. She lived in Petah Tikva and joined the IDF communication corps in 1959. In 1961 she married Yair Cohen and in 1962 they left to study in the US. Miriam received her B.Sc. in Mathematics with High Honors from California State University and continued for her Ph.D. in Mathematics at UCLA where she received her M.Sc. After returning to Israel she completed her Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Israel Nathan Herstein from the University of Chicago and Prof. A.A. Klein from Tel Aviv University. During these years the couple had four children. In 1978 the family moved for idealistic reasons from Herzliya Pituach to the development town of Yeruham and lived there for 10 years. Miriam joined the faculty of the department of Mathematics at BGU and has been a member ever since. During her time as a researcher and lecturer at BGU she volunteered in educational projects in Yeruham. In 1983–5 Cohen was a visiting Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and at UCLA in Los Angeles. In 1997–8 she was a visiting Professor at the Mathematics Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai. She was elected as a member of the 2017 class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to Hopf algebras and their representations, and for service to the mathematical community".
In 1996 she initiated and established the special track in Bioinformatics in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences Department at BGU.
In 1998–2002 she served as Elected Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at BGU and was a member of the Central Steering Committee and a member of the Executive committee of BGU
In 2001 she founded the Center of Advanced Studies in Mathematics at BGU and has serves as its director since June 2003
Initiation of the joint Israel Mathematical Union and the American Mathematical Society International meeting in 1995 and serves as member of the scientific committee of the second IMU and AMS meeting to take place in Israel in 2014.
Since 2002 Chair and member of the Organizing and scientific committee of the Moshe Flato Colloquia series at BGU.
Member of various professional committees such as the grant committee of the Clore Foundation for outstanding Ph.D. students, the professional evaluation committee of the Emet prize, the Harvey Award committee of the Technion and the Advisory Committee of the Rector of Haifa University.
Research grants
U.S.–Israel Binational Fund . Quality of the completed work was rated excellent by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
1986–1989 A 3-year grant from The Basic Science Foundation, The Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
1991–1994 A 3-year grant from the Israel Ministry of Science together with Prof. Davidson of the Department of Physics at Ben-Gurion University. Prof. Nissimov and Prof. Pacheva.
1991–1994 A 3-year Grant from the Basic Science Foundation, The Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
