Bernard Leonard Cohen

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Bernard Leonard Cohen (born June 14, 1924 in Pittsburgh , † March 17, 2012 ) was an American nuclear physicist.

Cohen studied at Case Western Reserve University , with a bachelor's degree in 1944 and at the University of Pittsburgh with a master's degree in 1947. In 1950 he received his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He has been Professor of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh since 1958 (at times also Adjunct Professor of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Radiation Health Hazards at the University's Graduate School of Public Health). From 1965 to 1978 he was director of the Scaife Nuclear Laboratory. In 1994 he retired.

He was an opponent of the controversial linear no-threshold model ( LNT model ) for the effect of ionizing radiation in radiation biology (especially in cancer development), according to which the effect begins at any small dose (no threshold value) and linearly with the dose increases. He believed that there was an inverse correlation between residential radon exposure and lung cancer risk in the USA (according to statistical studies in 1601 in the first study in 1995 and later in 1729 US counties) and drew the controversial conclusion that the LNT is wrong.

He also publicly advocated nuclear energy in public debates and books he published in the United States. In 1979 he published a Catalog of Risks to better compare the risks accused of nuclear energy .

In 1981 he received the Tom W. Bonner Prize for Nuclear Physics . In 2003 he became a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering . In 1996 he received the Walter Zinn Award from the American Nuclear Society .

Fonts

  • Concepts of nuclear physics, McGraw Hill 1971
  • Heart of the atom. The structure of the atomic nucleus, Doubleday, Garden City 1967
  • Nuclear Science and Society, Anchor Press 1974
  • The nuclear energy option: an alternative for the 90s, Plenum Press 1990, Online
  • Before it's too late: a scientist's case for nuclear energy, Plenum Press 1983
  • with Drew Nelson: Radon: a homeowner's guide to detection and control, Mount Vernon, Consumers Union 1987

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cohen Test of the Linear no-threshold Theory of radiation carcinogenesis for inhaled radon decay products , Health Physics, Volume 68, 1995, pp. 157-174, Cohen, Colditz Test of the Linear no-threshold Theory of radiation carcinogenesis , Environ. Res., Vol. 64, 1994, pp. 65-89
  2. ^ Cohen Updates and extensions to test of the linear no-threshold theory , Technology, Volume 7, 2000, pp. 657-672
  3. ↑ criticism z. B. Jay Lubin The potential for bias in Cohen's ecological analysis of lung cancer and residential radon , Journal of Radiological Protection, Volume 22, 2002, pp. 141-148, abstract
  4. ^ Cohen, IS Lee Catalog of Risks , Health Physics, Volume 36, 1979, p. 707
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Bernard Leonard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 2012