Rate My Professor Joshua Cohn

Joshua L. Cohn is a Professor in the Physics Department and Senior Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami. He received a B.A. in Physics with honors from Wesleyan University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Physics with distinction from the University of Michigan in 1989, where his thesis focused on low-temperature electronic transport in thin bismuth films. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory from 1989 to 1992, conducting research on high-temperature superconductors, he joined the University of Miami as Assistant Professor in 1992. He progressed to Associate Professor in 1998, full Professor in 2004, Associate Chair from 2010 to 2013, Department Chair from 2013 to 2021, and assumed his current roles in 2022.

Cohn's research centers on low-temperature electronic, magnetic, and thermal properties of novel materials exhibiting potential for future electronic devices, including thermoelectric effects, spin-mediated heat transport, superconductivity in low-dimensional systems, and thin-film heterostructures. His laboratory utilizes techniques such as pulsed-laser deposition and magnetron sputtering for thin films, x-ray crystallography for structural analysis, and measurements in liquid helium and high magnetic fields. He has obtained major funding from the Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences, National Science Foundation, and Research Corporation. Key publications include 'Semiconducting Ge clathrates: Promising candidates for thermoelectric applications' (Applied Physics Letters, 1998), 'Glasslike heat conduction in high-mobility crystalline semiconductors' (Physical Review Letters, 1999), 'Giant Nernst Effect and Bipolarity in the Quasi-One-Dimensional Metal, Li_{0.9}Mo_6O_{17}' (Physical Review Letters, 2012), and 'Superconductivity at carrier density 10^17 cm^{-3} in quasi-one-dimensional Li_{0.9}Mo_6O_{17}' (Physical Review B, 2023). With over 6,000 citations and an h-index of 35, his contributions have advanced understanding in condensed matter physics. Awards include the American Physical Society Outstanding Referee (2009), University of Miami Provost Research Award (2011), and Bertman Prize in Physics (1983). He has mentored four postdoctoral fellows, eight Ph.D. students, and thirteen undergraduates, and co-edited proceedings for University of Miami superconductivity conferences.