Michael D. Cohen (academic)

Michael Cohen (22 March 1945 – 2 February 2013) was the William D. Hamilton Collegiate Professor of Complex Systems, Information and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Cohen received his B.A. in History at Stanford University in 1966, and his Ph.D. in Social Science at the University of California, Irvine in 1972.

Cohen's research centered on learning and adaptation within organizations in response to changing environments.

He wrote many articles and books which contributed to theories of organizational decision making.

Much of his work employed computer simulation.

In 1972, as a NSF-SSRC post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University, Cohen worked with James G. March and visiting professor Johan Olsen from the University of Bergen.

Together they published the paper; A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice.

The paper, since frequently cited, describes the garbage can model, a model which disconnects problems, solutions and decision makers from each other.

This was a novel approach compared to traditional decision theory.

The paper includes Fortran source code to demonstrate the model.

By 1981, Cohen was working at the University of Michigan.

Cohen's research and publication continued to use computers to model complex organizational behavior.

In 1995 he worked with Robert Axtell, Robert Axelrod and Joshua M. Epstein and compared two agent based models; Axelrod's model with Epstein and Axtell's Sugarscape.

In 2000 Cohen and Axelrod went on to publish a book on complexity in organizations: Harnessing Complexity: Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier.

Cohen's later work included studies in organizational behavior in hospitals, with a view to improving patient care.

Much of this work focused on "handoffs"; the transfer of responsibility for patients from one team or department to another.