Itai Cohen

Research Focus

Graduate Students
Kemper Ludlow, Han Kheng Teoh, Abby Leung, Anna Barth

Professional Experience

• Post-doctoral Associate, Physics and Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Harvard University, 2001-2005. 
• Assistant Professor, Physics, Cornell University, 2005–2011. 
• Associate Professor, Physics, Cornell University, 2011– 2017. 
• Professor, Physics, Cornell University, 2017 - present.

Publications

1. Liu, Qingkun, Wei Wang, Michael F. Reynolds, Michael C. Cao, Marc Z. Miskin, Tomas A. Arias, David A. Muller, Paul L. McEuen, and Itai Cohen. "Micrometer-sized electrically programmable shape-memory actuators for low-power microrobotics." Science Robotics 6 no. 52 (2021).
2. Miskin, M.Z., Cortese, A.J., Dorsey, K., Esposito, E.P., Reynolds, M.F., Liu, Q., Cao, M., Muller, D.A., McEuen, P.L. and Cohen, I., 2020. Electronically integrated, mass-manufactured, microscopic robots. Nature, 584(7822), pp.557-561.
3. Niu, Ran, Meera Ramaswamy, Christopher Ness, Abhishek Shetty, and Itai Cohen. "Tunable solidification of cornstarch under impact: How to make someone walking on cornstarch sink." Science Advances 6, no. 19 (2020): eaay6661.
4. Cohen, Itai, and Melanie Dreyer-Lude. Finding Your Research Voice: Story Telling and Theatre Skills for Bringing Your Presentation to Life. Springer Nature, 2020.
5. Niu, Ran, Chrisy Xiyu Du, Edward Esposito, Jakin Ng, Michael P. Brenner, Paul L. McEuen, and Itai Cohen. "Magnetic handshake materials as a scale-invariant platform for programmed self-assembly." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 49 (2019): 24402-24407.
6. Miskin, Marc Z., Kyle J. Dorsey, Baris Bircan, Yimo Han, David A. Muller, Paul L. McEuen, and Itai Cohen. "Graphene-based bimorphs for micron-sized, autonomous origami machines." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, no. 3 (2018): 466-470.
7. Pikul, J. H., S. Li, H. Bai, R. T. Hanlon, I. Cohen, and R. F. Shepherd. "Stretchable surfaces with programmable 3D texture morphing for synthetic camouflaging skins." Science 358, no. 6360 (2017): 210-214.
8. Lin, Neil YC, Matthew Bierbaum, Peter Schall, James P. Sethna, and Itai Cohen. "Measuring nonlinear stresses generated by defects in 3D colloidal crystals." Nature Materials (2016).
9. Tunable Shear Thickening Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016).
10. Silverberg, Jesse L., Aliyah R. Barrett, Moumita Das, Poul B. Petersen, Lawrence J. Bonassar, and Itai Cohen. "Structure-function relations and rigidity percolation in the shear properties of articular cartilage." Biophysical journal 107, no. 7 (2014): 1721-1730.
11. Silverberg, Jesse L., Arthur A. Evans, Lauren McLeod, Ryan C. Hayward, Thomas Hull, Christian D. Santangelo, and Itai Cohen. "Using origami design principles to fold reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials." Science 345, no. 6197 (2014): 647-650.
12. Cheng, Xiang, Jonathan H. McCoy, Jacob N. Israelachvili, and Itai Cohen. "Imaging the microscopic structure of shear thinning and thickening colloidal suspensions." Science 333, no. 6047 (2011): 1276-1279.
13. Ristroph, Leif, Attila J. Bergou, Gunnar Ristroph, Katherine Coumes, Gordon J. Berman, John Guckenheimer, Z. Jane Wang, and Itai Cohen. "Discovering the flight autostabilizer of fruit flies by inducing aerial stumbles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, no. 11 (2010): 4820-4824.

In the news

• Micromachines autonomously coordinate using electronic pulses
• Smallest walking robot makes microscale measurements
• Microscale kirigami robot folds into 3D shapes and crawls
• Parrots, songbirds have evolved distinct brain mechanisms, Klarman Fellow finds
• NIH-funded fly study to pinpoint brain’s role in navigation
• Hummingbird beak points the way to future micro machine design
• $2.5M in A&S New Frontier Grants supports bold projects
• Self-folding origami machines powered by chemical reaction
• Klarman Fellow studies vocal learning in parrots
• Fruit flies use two muscles to control pitch for stable flight
• Brains on board: Smart microrobots walk autonomously
• Artificial cilia could someday power diagnostic devices
• Panelists explore ‘Science of the Very, Very Small’
• Collaborative faculty win Vaughn Award for cartilage research
• Science of the very, very small featured in next Arts Unplugged
• Natalie Wolchover named A&S Zubrow Visiting Journalist for Spring 2022
• Laser jolts microscopic electronic robots into motion
• Nanotech facility gets 5-year, $7.5M renewal from NSF
• First visiting journalist shares world of the NYT with students, faculty
• Self-assembling system uses magnets to mimic specific binding in DNA
• Unpacking ‘packing’ is topic of Hans Bethe Lecture
• Acoustic energy harnessed to soften shear-thickening fluids
• Physics, fundamental to neurobiology
• Physics theory used to predict crowd behavior
• Physicists take first step toward cell-sized robots
• Top-flight rheometer allows for outside-the-box research
• Octopus inspires 3-D texture morphing project
• Munday speaker focuses on intersections of race, inequality, criminal justice
• Faculty train to use new technologies to share their research widely
• Jumping spiders mimic ants to defy predators
• Symposium explores possibilities of origami nanomachines
• The fun - and merit - of collaborative physics
• Microscope becomes gauge to measure forces within crystals
• Early career scientists named as inaugural Mong Fellows in Neurotech