Cohen, Jon, 1958-

Jon Cohen received a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 from the University of California, San Diego, where he majored in science writing. In 1990 he started reporting and writing for Science magazine, where he primarily reported on HIV/AIDS developments including the response from the National Institute for Health and other governmental organizations, AIDS scientists, and vaccine research. He regularly attended conferences that addressed AIDS and corresponded with various scientists who were pioneers in the early research of the disease. In 2001, Cohen published a book about the history of the quest for an AIDS vaccine, titled Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, and the materials in this collection reflect his decade-long accumulation of documents relevant to research for the book.