Lesley Cohen (physicist)

Cohen completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Bedford College, London in 1983.[3] She moved to the University of Cambridge to where she was awarded a PhD in 1988 for microwave investigations into superconductivity.[4][5]

After her PhD, she joined Polytechnic University of New York as a postdoctoral research fellow in 1988 and was appointed Assistant Professor in 1989.[5] Cohen first joined Imperial College London in 1993 funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.[6] She became a Reader in Solid State in 2003 and a Professor in 2006.[5] Between 2008 - 2013, she was Head of Solid State Physics, one of the largest research groups at Imperial.[7] Cohen is interested in alternatives to standard models of refrigeration, using magnetic materials.[8] Magnetic refrigeration could provide a "green" alternative to traditional fridges, using 20 - 30% less energy.[9] In 2009 her group uncovered the mechanism behind cooling crystals, known as the magnetocaloric effect.[10][11][12]

She is co-investigator the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Research Programme on Nanoplasmonics Reactive Plasmonics.[13]

In 2014 Cohen arranged a Royal Society two-day residential conference on Emergence of new exotic states at interfaces with superconductors.[14] In 2016 she took part in another two-day discussion at the Royal Society, Taking the temperature of phase transitions in cool materials.[15][16] She is consul for the faculty of Natural Sciences.[17]

Her recent work focuses on exotic properties that occur at interfaces between thin films, at crystallographic boundaries and at vertices in honeycomb structures, working closely with Will R. Branford.[18][19]