Prof. Henry Cohn

Professor Cohn's principal research projects are currently on sphere packing, energy minimization, and fast matrix multiplication. More broadly, his mathematical interests include discrete geometry, coding theory, cryptography, combinatorics, computational and analytic number theory, and theoretical computer science.

One conceptual issue that fascinates Cohn is the role of symmetry in mathematics and physics, particularly for exceptional structures such as E8. Why do the same beautiful structures occur in so many different contexts? There is clearly far more going on here than we currently understand.

Professor Cohn has always been interested in understanding simple physical systems, ranging from the dimer model to hard spheres and soft-matter systems. Many of the deepest issues deal with order vs. disorder, for example in phase transitions or the study of defects in ground states. Which conditions lead to order and symmetry?

Cohn's preference is for a mixture of concrete and abstract mathematics. He loves concrete problems -- for example, he is interested in the use of harmonic analysis in sphere packing or representation theory in computational algebra.