Lab Rat of the Week: Andrew K. Cohen '13

The decision to pursue laboratory research at Harvard was an easy one for Andrew K. Cohen ’13.

An Intel semifinalist his senior year of high school, Cohen worked for three years to test how paper waste could be converted into biofuel.

“Research was kind of my favorite thing,” he said.

But the Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrator has since traded gels for case studies in business and policy—a shift in interest largely inspired by his time behind the laboratory bench.

Driven by the interest in biofuels he had fostered throughout high school, Cohen first sought out Harvard Medical School genetics professor George M. Church, one of just a few Harvard professors involved in biofuel research, the fall of his sophomore year.

“I went there first week of September, told him I was interested, and he said, ‘Let’s find you a spot,’” Cohen recalled.

That “spot” would entail genetically engineering bacteria to improve their ability to convert plants into biofuels. Because the genome of the bacterium studied in Church’s lab is known, Cohen and his mentor, Andrew C. Tolonen, were able to predict which genetic changes would best enhance the biofuel-generative capacity of the bacterium. Cohen inserted DNA into each bacterial genome to create these different versions, which could then be tested.

Cohen said the best part of research is the “intellectual autonomy.”

“If you’re working at a hedge fund, you don’t really get to play around with their money and see if your investment ideas work,” he said. “But if you work in a research lab—especially if you work with the right people who trust your hands—you can really think of your best ideas, and kind of get to see that start to finish.”

But after working in the laboratory for a semester, Cohen quickly realized that collegiate research was not everything he had anticipated.

“It was getting really hard,” he said. “The level of research that was expected was way beyond what I was doing in high school.”

Cohen was also discovering a new passion: the intersection of policy and economics in the implementation of renewable energy technologies. After taking Environmental Science and Public Policy 90s: “The Technology, Economics, and Public Policy of Renewable Energy” with Harvard Business School professor George P. Baker ’79, Cohen found himself deeply drawn to the process of making renewable technologies a reality.

Tolonen said he is not surprised that Cohen decided to pursue a different route. “In addition to being an excellent scientist, he clearly had a big focus on understanding the sciences of bioenergy and how it could be applied in the real world,” Tolonen said, adding that even while working in the lab Cohen was a member of Harvard’s bioenergy club.

And he emphasized that Cohen brings a unique and important perspective to the business and politics of renewable energy. “It’s only people like Andy who have worked in a lab and understand the science who can push the policy,” Tolonen said.

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.