Professor Henry Cohn
Professor Cohn is one of three founding members of Microsoft Research New England, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and until 2025 he was a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research. In 2025 he became a full-time Professor of Mathematics at MIT. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard in 2000 under the supervision of Noam Elkies.
Professor Cohn’s mathematical research interests are in discrete mathematics, including discrete geometry, coding theory, cryptography, combinatorics, computational number theory, and theoretical computer science.
Professor Cohn was a student at PROMYS in 1990. He returned as a junior counsellor in 1991 and was a counsellor in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996, when he was head counsellor. Over the years, Professor Cohn has repeatedly returned to PROMYS as an instructor, research mentor, and guest lecturer. In 2011, he co-founded the PROMYS Foundation to support PROMYS and its mission to nurture mathematical talent. Professor Cohn participated in the week-long Oxford Masterclasses in 2014 and delivered a guest lecture to the CMI-PROMYS Scholars.
Professor Cohn and Professor Stevens share the teaching of the daily Number Theory lectures at PROMYS Europe.