COM Outlook Winter 2019

18 | DR. KIRAN C. PATEL COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE As a child growing up in Washington, D.C., Stanley Cohen, Ed.D., M.Ed., spent many happy days discovering the wonders of science at the Smith- sonian Institution, where he reveled in looking at and touching prehistoric dinosaur bones. Years later, after his family relocated to Ventnor City, New Jersey, Cohen’s scientific penchant continued when he entered a scholarship contest as a high school sophomore. His project? Spending two years breeding guinea pigs in the family home to see what effect inbreeding would have on the animals. Because of his scientific proclivities, Cohen initially decided to pursue a career in medical research and enroll at Rutgers University in New Jersey. It turned out to be a fateful decision that led him to form an unexpected friendship with the man who was named TIME magazine’s Person of the Century in its Decem- ber 31, 1999, issue: Albert Einstein. In 1946, Cohen was a talented and industrious 18-year-old college freshman looking to become rich and famous as a medical researcher and creator of lifesaving antibiotics. Because the library at nearby Princeton University housed a broader range of resource materials than those at Rutgers, however, Cohen frequented the Princeton library. During one of his visits, Cohen unexpectedly caught sight of the inimitable Einstein, who immigrat- ed to the United States in the autumn of 1933 and later accepted a professorship at Princeton’s prestigious Institute for Advanced Study. “I am an extrovert by nature, so I simply walked over and introduced myself by saying, ‘Hello, you must be Albert Einstein. I am Stanley Cohen Discusses His Extraordinary Life Susan Stocker/ South Florida Sun Sentinel and Einstein Education