Jared Cohon is University Professor in the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy and President Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University.  He served as the President of Carnegie Mellon from 1997 to 2013 and as Director of the university’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation from 2014 to 2017.  During his presidency, Carnegie Mellon made progress in education and research, expanded internationally, increased its diversity and contributed significantly to the economic development of southwest Pennsylvania.

Before his time in Pittsburgh, Dr. Cohon was a Professor of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, from 1973 to 1992, where he also served as Vice Provost for Research from 1986 to 1992, Associate Dean of Engineering from 1983 to 1986, and Assistant Dean of Engineering from 1981 to 1983.  Following his tenure at Johns Hopkins, he was Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Professor of Environmental Systems Analysis at Yale University from 1992 to 1997.  He took a one-year leave from teaching to be Legislative Assistant for Energy and Environment on the staff of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1977 to 1978. 

Dr. Cohon has served the nation in many advisory roles.  In January 1995, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. In 1997, he assumed the role of Chairman of the Board, a position he held until 2002.  He was appointed by President George W. Bush and reappointed by President Barack Obama to the Homeland Security Advisory Council on which he served from 2002 to 2013.  In 2014 and 2015, he co-chaired the congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories.  A member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he currently chairs the National Academies’ Board on Energy and Environmental Systems and he chaired two of its most influential, congressionally mandated study committees:  the committee that produced the 2010 report, “The Hidden Costs of Energy,” and, from 2012 to 2015, the Committee on the Fuel Economy of Light Duty Vehicles, Phase II.   

Dr. Cohon serves on the boards of two public companies (Trane Technologies and Unisys) and six non-profit organizations including the Heinz Endowments, the Hillman Foundations, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Health Effects Institute. 

Dr. Cohon is trained as a civil engineer with a specialty in environmental and water resource systems analysis. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.