Jared Leigh Cohon (October 7, 1947 – March 16, 2024) was an American academic administrator who served as the eighth president of

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

beginning in 1997 in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. , he was a University Professor in the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering.

Life and career

Jared Leigh Cohon was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

on October 7, 1947. He held a BS in Civil Engineering from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, earned in 1972 and 1973, respectively. Prior to Carnegie Mellon, Cohon was the Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and professor of environmental systems analysis at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

from 1992 to 1997 and was a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and Assistant and Associate Dean of Engineering and Vice Provost for Research at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

from 1973 to 1992. He became President of Carnegie Mellon in 1997. During his first month of his presidency, he oversaw th
removal of a stand of trees
to build the Purnell Center for the Arts. He was shocked that there were no student protests against the act.

"I'm worried that our undergraduates can be so focused on preparing for their careers that they fail to develop a sense of and passion for what else is important to them." –Jared Cohon, 1997 copy of The Thistle, Carnegie Mellon's now defunct yearbook

Cohon stepped down from his position as President of Carnegie Mellon in 2013 and returned to the faculty as a University Professor in the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy and director of th
Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation
In 2014, Carnegie Mellon announced that the University Center would be renamed in honor of President Cohon and will be called the Cohon University Center. Cohon was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

(2012) for contributions to environmental systems analysis and national policy and leadership in higher education. Cohon died on March 16, 2024, at the age of 76.Jared Cohon, former Carnegie Mellon University president, dies at 76
CBS News

References

Sources

External links

Carnegie Mellon Piper: Interview with Jared Cohon
(p. 12) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohon, Jared 1947 births 2024 deaths University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni Presidents of Carnegie Mellon University Yale University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Scientists from Cleveland