Sherman Cochran

Background

Cochran was born in Saint Johns, Portland, Oregon in 1940.

Education

He completed his Bachelor of Arts at Yale University in 1962. Cochran then decided to become a Chinese historian and completed his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy at Yale in 1967 and 1975, respectively, where he was a student of Mary C. Wright and Jonathan Spence.

Career

Early He is a graduate of Roosevelt High School. Cochran became interested in Chinese history when he lived in Hong Kong immediately after graduating from college. At the time, he was teaching English under the Yale-China Association Program at New Asia College in Kowloon.

Cochran joined the Cornell faculty in 1973 as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 1986.

He was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, District of Columbia between 1998 and 1999, and the Henry Luce Senior Fellow at the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, between 2002 and 2003. Cochran was appointed the Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History in July 2004.

In May 2010, the China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) Program at Cornell decided to establish the Sherman Cochran Prize in honor of Professor Cochran, Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History and CAPS founding director, for his great contribution to the establishment and development of the program Cochran is married to historian Maria Cristina Garcia, a historian of immigration and refugee history, who also works at Cornell.

He retired in 2012 but maintains an active research program

Achievements

• He was a football player in college and won three-year football letterman and received All-Ivy League Honorable Mention in his junior year.