Jamshed Bharucha

President Emeritus

Jamshed Bharucha was the twelfth President of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Prior to this position, which commenced on July 1, 2011 and concluded on June 30, 2015, he served in academic leadership positions at Dartmouth College and Tufts University.

A cognitive neuroscientist, he has published extensively on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of music (using a variety of methods including perceptual experiments, computational neural net models and MRI brain scanning), has been awarded grants from NSF and NIH for his work, and has served as Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Music Perception. More recently, he has written and lectured widely on the challenges facing higher education, emphasizing the need for bold innovations in learning and global engagement.

Speeches and announcements made during his four year tenure can be found here.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.