[7] As chemist, Cochran was part of a team that carried out pioneering studies on the nature of free radicals, along with Chih-Kung Jen, Frank.
J. Adrian, Vernon A. Bowers, Samuel Foner, and others, including the description of the Electron Spin Resonance spectra of simple free radicals trapped in solid matrices at cryogenic temperatures.
[8] Dozens of free radicals were described for the first time, including hydrogen, deuterium, nitrogen, methane, alkyl, formyl, ethynyl and vinyl, NH2 and ND2 and cyanogen and Methylene Imino.
His son William is an active artist with works proposed for Symphony Woods, his daughter Courtney Watson became a school board member, County Councilperson, and Maryland State Delegate.
[31] He is credited by Maryland State Senator Robert Kittleman, then the education chairman of Howard County's NAACP chapter, for providing the swing vote on February 9, 1965, to close all-black schools.
[32][33][34] In 1975, as County Executive, Dr. Cochran introduced an act establishing an Office of Human Rights and making discrimination on the basis of race, creed, religion, physical or mental handicap, color, sex, national origin, age, occupation, marital status, political opinion, sexual orientation, or personal appearance in the areas of housing, employment, law enforcement, public accommodations, and financing unlawful in Howard County Maryland.