Ariel Cohen is a professor (emeritus) of atmospheric physics and planetary astronomy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a political activist, and a world-renowned expert on LIDAR (Laser Radar) research and development.

Cohen was born in France but emigrated to Israel after the Second World War. He received his doctorate from Hebrew University in 1972 and continued his studies on LIDAR development at the American National Institute of Atmospheric Physics. At age forty, he was already a well-known published academic and was promoted to the rank of full professor in Jerusalem.

Unidentified Contact is his first novel.