Gerontology school names new dean

Pinchas Cohen, a leading researcher and a former vice chair at the UCLA School of Medicine, was named dean of the Davis School of Gerontology on Friday by Provost and Senior Vice President Elizabeth Garrett on behalf of USC President C. L. Max Nikias. The appointment is effective Aug. 1.

In addition to working as the school’s dean, Cohen will serve as the executive director of the Ethel Percey Andrus Gerontology Center, the school’s research arm. He was also named holder of the William and Sylvia Kugel Dean’s Chair in Gerontology.

Davis focuses on the study of different aspects of aging, ranging from its social effects to its biological effects.

Cohen’s research centers on mitochondrial biology and the significance of its role in aging. He is co-founder of CohBar, a biotechnology company working on using mitochondrial peptides in diabetes treatments.

Cohen’s work has been acknowledged by several organizations, receiving awards from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health.

At UCLA, Cohen supervised teaching, training and research and worked in programs concerning age-related diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Before his tenure at UCLA, Cohen worked as chief and professor of endocrinology at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital. He has also served as associate director of the UCSD-UCLA Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center.

Cohen serves on the boards of many professional organizations, including the American Federation for Aging Research and the Growth Hormone Research Society.

While working as a professor of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2009, Cohen was awarded a $2-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund his research in mitochondrial dysfunction, which has been linked to many diseases including Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes.

In addition to his research and teaching, Cohen, who has been cited in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, has authored more than 250 papers in scientific journals, according to USC News.

Cohen received his medical degree from Technion School of Medicine in Israel with top honors and did his residency and fellowship at Stanford University. After his time at Stanford, Cohen spent seven years at the University of Pennsylvania.

Cohen will replace outgoing dean Gerald C. Davison, who announced his resignation at the end of August 2011. Davison said, at the time, that he believed a new dean could help the school continue to move forward.

Davison, who has held a range of positions since joining the faculty in 1979, will work on research and teaching at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences when his term is complete. Davison has previously served as interim dean of the USC School of Architecture, interim dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and chair of the Department of Psychology at Dornsife.