Guide to the Elli Kohen Papers

Elli Kohen, was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1930. Earning his medical degree from the University of Istanbul in 1954. He served in the Turkish Army before pursuing a Ph.D. in pathology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973. As an expert in photobiology and cell imaging using fluorescence microscopy he published numerous articles and books, and taught at the University of Miami’s Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and the Department of Biology and conducted research at the Papanicolaou Cancer Research Institute. After serving the University of Miami community as teacher and researcher for nearly forty years he was named professor emeritus of the Department of Biology.

In addition to being a prolific researcher in his primary field of medicine, Elli Kohen found time to write on the history of Sephardic and Turkish Jews, create, with his daughter, a Ladino-English dictionary, wrote a book on the history and myths of cats throughout the world, and even, with his daughter, a novel.

He passed away in December of 2007 and was survived by his wife Cahilde, daughter, Dahlia Kohen-Gordon, and son-in-law, Sean Gordon.

In addition to his works on photobiology, unlisted in this finding aid, here is a list of his works relating to other topics:

The above material was pieced together from the following sources: Elli Kohen’s Curriculum Vitae The blog In My Heart – Jewish Memories has a copy of his obituary. And various tributes in University of Miami newsletters E-Veritas and the Spring 2008 College of Arts and Sciences magazine, Arts & Sciences.