Victor Edward Cohn

Background

Victor Edward Cohn was born on August 4, 1919, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He was a son of Louis Cohn and Lillian (Bessler) Cohn.

Education

In 1941, Victor received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. Later, in 1986, he got an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Georgetown University.

Career

In 1940, Victor was appointed an editor at the Minnesota Daily, the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a post he held till 1941. Between 1941 and 1942, he served as a desk man at the Minneapolis Star newspaper. During the period from 1942 till 1946, Victor served in the United States Naval Reserve.

Cohn joined the Minneapolis Tribune as a copyreader in 1946. The same year, he was appointed a reporter at the same newspaper and remained in that position until 1947, when he was promoted to the post of a science reporter there. In 1967, Cohn left the position.

From 1968 till 1972, Victor served as a science editor at the Washington Post, where, during the period from 1972 till 1984, Victor acted as a science-medical reporter. In 1984, Cohn was appointed a senior writer and columnist at the same newspaper, the posts he continued to hold till 1993.

In addition, between 1960 and 1996, Victor was a director of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, as well as a fellow of the council, beginning in 1996.

Besides his career as a journalist, editor and reporter, Cohn acted as an educator. In 1966, he was appointed a visiting lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, a post he held till 1967. In 1978, 1984 and 1996, Victor worked as a visiting fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. From 1990 till 1991, he worked as a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University.

Moreover, between 1993 and 1994, Cohn acted as a research fellow at Georgetown University.

Achievements

• Victor Edward Cohn was a renowned science-medical writer, who worked at the Minneapolis Tribune and Washington Post. He was cited as one of the top science writers by the New York Times and Newsweek.
  
  Victor received many awards, including the Distinguished Reporting Award in 1952, 1956 and 1959, Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award in 1958, Howard W. Blakeslee Award in 1963, James T. Grady Award in 1971 and many others.
  
  In addition, during his time at the Minneapolis Tribune, Victor twice won the American Association for the Advancement of Science-George Westinghouse Prize for Distinguished Science Reporting, the first person to do so.
  
  He also received numerous citations for service to health, including those from Minnesota Medical Association in 1955, Minnesota Public Health Association in 1966, Mid-Atlantic chapter of the American Medical Writers Association in 1976 and 1980, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation in 1984 and 1996, Group Health Association of Washington in 1990, Medical Society of the District of Columbia in 1995 and others.
  
  Moreover, in 1978, Victor got a citation for science reporting from the Exploratorium, a museum in San Francisco.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sister Kenny: The Woman Who Challenged the Doctors

    (This work recounts the life and historically important ca...)

    1976
  • 1999: Our Hopeful Future 1956
  • News & Numbers: A Guide to Reporting Statistical Claims and Controversies in Health and Other Fields 1989

Membership

• fellow

  American Statistical Association , United States

  1994 - 1996

• fellow

  American Association for the Advancement of Science , United States

• president

  National Association of Science Writers , United States

  1961 - 1962

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Victor suffered from lung cancer.

Connections

Victor married Marcella (Rigler) Cohn on August 30, 1941. Their marriage produced three children - Jeffrey, Deborah and Phyllis. Marcella died in September 1980.

Father:

Louis Cohn

Mother:

Lillian (Bessler) Cohn

child:

Jeffrey Cohn

child:

Phyllis Cohn

child:

Deborah Cohn

Wife:

Marcella (Rigler) Cohn