Allen and Toby Cohen in Yosemite National Park
Allen and Toby Cohen at Joshua Tree National Park, California
Allen and Toby Cohen in Tikal, Guatemala
Biography
I met my wife Toby at a Harvard mixer. We were married after 11 weeks and now almost 45 years. Our four children, all married, Devora (physician-two sons) Naomi (attorney for LA county-two daughters) , Aaron (musician) and Daniel (high school math teacher-one son) all live within a 50 mile radius in the LA area. My mother and sister Doris later moved to Orange County to be near us.
After high school, I went to Cornell U for one year, Ithaca was too different for a Brooklyn boy although the education was superb. I returned to Brooklyn College where I graduated with a double major in physics and math. I earned a Ph.D. in experimental physics from MIT but did not want to work on war projects. After doing ophthalmology research at Boston U., I was accepted into the Ph D to MD program at the U of Miami. Florida. Next, I took a radiology residency at the University of California, Irvine, near my wife’s home town. I have been at UCI for 32 years, rising to vice chairman of the Radiology department. I am also the chief of abdominal imaging specializing in Trauma and Emergency CT scans.
Academia has given me the opportunity to lecture in countries that are not usually visited by Americans. I talked in the USSR before its fall. Other, off the main stream countries where I have talked were Uzbekistan, Dominica, Vietnam, Taiwan, and, in 2008, Iran. I will talk in Guatemala in October. We have been successfully sponsoring a young lady from Vietnam since 2002.
If you come to Orange County CA, please come visit.
Betty Li (San Francisco, California)
