Harley Cohen ’58 ScM

Harley Cohen ’58 ScM, of Winnipeg, Manitoba; Apr. 24, 2022, following a brief illness. After obtaining his master’s, he worked as a research engineer for the Boeing Aircraft Company and as a development engineer and senior scientist for Honeywell. While at Honeywell he obtained a patent for a gyroscope that was used in the first lunar landing in 1969. He completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1964. His academic career began in 1965 at the University of Minnesota when he was appointed assistant professor in the department of aeronautics and engineering mechanics. He returned to Winnipeg in 1966 to take a professorship in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba. He enhanced the mathematics curriculum there and was appointed distinguished professor in 1983, a title conferred for distinction in research, scholarship, creative endeavors, professional service, and teaching. He was head of the civil engineering department from 1984 to 1989 and dean of the science faculty from 1989 to 1994, retiring in 1998. He authored more than 100 papers on topics from electromagnetics to couple-stress elasticity. In 1988, he coauthored The Theory of Pseudo-Rigid Bodies, a concept he introduced in 1981. He was the James L. Record Professor at the University of Minnesota in 1979, the first holder of the chair. In 1982, he was awarded the Killam Visiting Professorship at the University of Calgary. He was a visiting professor at the University of Warsaw in 1983, the University of Strathclyde (SERC Fellow) in 1985, and the University of Pisa (CNR Fellow) in 1987. He was a registered professional engineer in the Province of Manitoba (APEM) and a fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics (Founder Member), the International Society of Engineering Science, the Society for Natural Philosophy, and the Canadian Applied Mathematics Society. His board memberships included the American Academy of Mechanics, the Manitoba Research Council, and the Premier’s Economic Innovation and Technology Council of Manitoba. He is survived by a daughter, two sons, a daughter-in-law, a sister, and nieces and nephews.