She will always live in my heart.Many of us considered Carolyn as our ‘academic mother’. I remember that she had made efforts to extend my employment when I first joined my husband in Detroit without a job. Lucky for me that I had the opportunity be mentored by some of the very best in the business of this budding field.During the first six months of my nearly 17 years with the Brandeis structure group — nearly 50 scientist, students, post-docs and technical specialist during those early days — I noticed that every other week or so I would hear the ‘Happy Birthday to You’ song emanating from the old coffee area just down the hall from my office. I have many stories of working with Carolyn but here is one of my favorites.When I started working as the manager for the electron microscopy lab back in the fall of 1984, I quickly learned that I had a Everything about this was quite new and quite difficult. She was a unique person.Carolyn (aka “C2”) was colorful, unconventional, warm-hearted and had a lively sense of humor! As far as I know, it was the first so named laboratory at a time when most institutions were creating laboratories of molecular biology. Apparently, this group really liked cake.One day, Carolyn and I were working at the bench preparing a protein for an initial look in negative stain prior to plunge freezing the sample when, once again, a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ could be heard. Carolyn Cohen's 15 research works with 636 citations and 133 reads, including: References 1984 Nature A New Myosin Fragment Repair cost $3000. Please do read the two wonderful light-hearted heart-felt memoirs by Carolyn in the JBC.In 1972, Carolyn Cohen, Don Caspar, and Susan Lowey brought the Laboratory of Structural Biology from The Jimmy Fund to the fourth floor of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Building at Brandeis University. There was a knack of adding personal touch and care in her which made her so unique from my all other professional associations. Her fascinating science and scientist stories (many reflections were from before I was born) were a welcome distraction as we often found ourselves being the only souls on the fourth floor in the Rosenstiel Basic Science Center on weekends! She came to my ordination, and for years afterwards would call me every few months to update me on her lab’s progress and enquire after mine, as well as to update me on lab gossip. I stil have vivid memories of those times. After all these years, I still remember the “fighting” with her on the crystal structure of Tropomyosin. I will never forget her kindness.Carolyn was unique for her intelligence and humor, knowledge of French literature, and amazing book collection, as well as her scientific accomplishments. I vividly remember being called in Iowa, for a referral about her chest pain, in Paris. Share to let others add their own memories and condolences She asked me, rather at the last minute, to make her a slide of Queen Victoria who was a victim of this disorder. Carolyn Cohen's 38 research works with 4,700 citations and 1,270 reads, including: X-Ray Solution Scattering of Squid Heavy Meromyosin: Strengthening the Evidence for an Ancient Compact off State Carolyn interviewed one applicant whom we were considering, and after at most five minutes said to us “too vacant.” We did not listen. Bobbie Riggs in their infamous tennis match. I met her at least forty-five years ago, when she was a print collector — as was I. I was also a paper conservator at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum, and I matted and framed her prints as they came along. Carolyn was a member of the Brandeis faculty for over forty years and retired in 2012. Despite this failing, we became great friends; she had profound insights in many fields, and, importantly, a wonderful sense of humor to accompany this erudition. I was thinking it was going to take me a long time to finish my projects in the lab – and indeed, after twenty-three years, I’m still here! Carolyn Cohen. There really isn’t much more to say, except that Carolyn’s talent for friendship and good company exceeded even her scientific brilliance and her cultural depth, and that says a lot.I want to extend my sympathies to Carolyn’s family, friends, and colleagues. What a fantastic time being supervised by Andrew in protein chemistry and by Carolyn in EM/structural techniques. In 1972, along with two colleagues, she took their research lab named "Structural Biology Laboratory" and became the first research group at the Brandeis University Rosenstiel Center. I understood little of what she said that summer, but what I saw in her pictures persuaded me to work on the structure of proteins.” I met the eminent Brandeis Professor Carolyn Cohen in 1977 at a conference I organized on Dorothy Wrinch’s polymathic In the summer of 1964 I took a 2-month leave from a postdoctoral stint with Herman Eisen at Washington U Medical School to work on a project with Susan Lowey at the “Jimmy Fund”: it was a memorable experience and led to enduring friendships with Susan and Carolyn.Unlike all of the above friends, I knew Carolyn through art, not science. She ordered and delivered that delicious cake from her favorite French bakery in Wellesley as a special treat for me.
Her appreciation of literature, art and music, her mentoring of young women in science, mean that her influence continues to spread and inspire many. Carolyn was not only an outstanding scientist, but she had a deep knowledge of literature, especially the French classics which she read in the original language. The lab attracted a unique combination of talents, and was designed with an open plan that encouraged collaboration between groups.