About
Alan R. Cohen was born in New York City and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York. He graduated Summa cum Laude from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his medical degree at Cornell Medical College and went to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center to begin a career in internal medicine. The following year, he moved to New York City to do general surgery at the New York University Medical Center. He went on to complete a neurosurgical residency at NYU, which included a fellowship in neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, England.
Cohen joined the faculty of the Tufts University School of Medicine where he served as director of pediatric neurosurgery for 7 years. He spent the next 17 years in Cleveland at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where he was Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery and Surgeon-in-Chief at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Reinberger Professor of Neurological Surgery and Pediatrics and Residency Program Director.
Cohen spent the next five years in Boston as Neurosurgeon-in-Chief and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurological Surgery at Harvard Medical School.
He currently works at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he is Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology and Pediatrics and the Carson-Spiro Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery. At Hopkins he also serves as director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowship, director of the Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery Laboratory and director of Medical Student Education in Neurosurgery.
He has served as President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, President of the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons, Chairman of the AANS/CNS Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery, President of the Boston Society of Neurology and Psychiatry and President of the Ohio State Neurosurgical Society. He was a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery and a Director of the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.
His primary clinical interests are pediatric brain tumors and minimally invasive neurosurgery. His research interests have focused on novel surgical approaches and minimally invasive techniques. His awards include Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Achievement Award from the Children’s Miracle Network, Best Doctors in America, the Scholarship in Teaching Award from the CWRU School of Medicine, the Golden Stethoscope Award from Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, the Excellence in Teaching Award and the Otenasek Faculty Teaching Award from Johns Hopkins.
He has served as visiting professor at over 60 academic centers in the United States and abroad. He was the inaugural United States editor of the international journal, Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery, and serves as associate editor of Child’s Nervous System. His bibliography includes 250 journal, chapter, and book publications, and 350 national and international presentations.
His textbook, Pediatric Neurosurgery: Tricks of the Trade, was awarded first prize by the Association of American Publishers and the British Medical Association, and was translated into Chinese and Spanish. His invited review article, "Brain Tumors in Children", was published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2022 and was translated into Chinese.
Cohen was the Honored Guest at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Boston of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. That year he delivered the Great Teachers Lecture on The Art of Neurosurgery at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He delivered the Donald D. Matson Memorial Lecture at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Boston of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in 2025.
His non-medical interests include music and sleight of hand. In 1974, he enjoyed an apprenticeship with The Great Slydini in New York City.