A native of New York City, Cohen received her BA from Radcliffe college in 1967 and her master's and doctoral degrees from Caltech in 1969 and 1971 respectively. After a period as assistant astronomer at Kitt Peak Observatory, she was appointed Associate Professor at Caltech in 1979 and Professor in 1988. Among other accomplishments, she was the designer and builder of the low-resolution spectrograph for the Keck Telescope.
From the description of Supplement to papers. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79239353