Dr. John Maxwell Cohn

A chief scientist of design automation in the Systems and Technology Group at IBM, Burlington, Vermont, he has been an innovator in the area of design automation for both analog and digital custom integrated circuits. As IBM's Chief EDA Strategist, he continues to leverage his deep expertise and proven track record of innovation in the design of world-class microprocessors, system-on-a-chip solutions and a broad array of technology enablement services. He describes his specific role for IBM as Chief Scientist for Computer Aided Design. The group he leads helps create chips for everything from camcorders to video games to supercomputers. His accomplishments have shortened development cycles, improved efficiency, and increased client satisfaction. He is broadly recognized both inside and outside IBM as IBM's premier technical leader in electronic design automation (EDA) technology. He is a strong driving force behind IBM's continuous innovation in the methodologies used in integrated circuit design. Born in Manhattan, New York, his family moved to Houston, Texas when he was three. As a child he had lots of role models nearby as his parents were friends with many of the NASA astronauts. He remembers that, ?As a young kid in Houston, TX, with that motivation, I began taking apart everything I could get my hands on to figure out how they worked. By the time I was 12 or so I could even put some of them back together again. I built my own laboratory where I experimented with every sort of science material I could get my hands on. I did experiments in chemistry, physics, biology and math.? He received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT, and earned a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University as part of the IBM Resident Study Program. After graduating from MIT he moved to a converted schoolhouse in northern Vermont and created a laboratory in his house. He is active in education issues at a local, state and national level. He is an adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Vermont and has taught part-time at both high school and elementary school levels. He has been active for many years in National Engineering Week. He co-chairs IBM?s corporate-wide Technical Education Outreach Steering Committee. He also serves on the science education standards committee for the state of Vermont. He is eager to share his love of science and engineering with anyone who will listen and frequently takes his traveling "Jolts and Volts" electricity show to schools, community groups, universities and museums across the US including such diverse venues as the New York Hall of Science, The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and frequent shows at Disney's Epcot Center in Florida. His education program has been covered by CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, EETimes, USAToday and other newspapers across the US. In 2009, he appeared on the Discovery Channel show The Colony; a simulated life after a global catastrophe based in downtown Los Angeles. He implemented his abundant knowledge of engineering throughout the series, including; a Tesla coil, soap, spark-gap transmitter, solar tracking device, wood gasifier, electric vehicle, flamethrower, and many other useful devices. In 2002 he was elected a fellow of the IEEE in recognition to contribution to the high performance custom circuit design automation. In 2006, he was named IBM Fellow; the company's most prestigious technical honor. He has authored more than 30 technical papers and has contributed to four books on design automation. He has 60 patents issued or pending in the field of design automation, methodology, and circuits. In October 2013 he was a presenter at a TEDx conference. TEDxDelft 2013 was themed "Do try this at home", and his talk was titled "The importance of play". He still lives in the restored schoolhouse in Jonesville, Vermont with his family.