[1] Cochran became interested in Chinese history when he lived in Hong Kong immediately after graduating from college.
At the time, he was teaching English under the Yale-China Association Program at New Asia College in Kowloon.
He was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. between 1998 and 1999, and the Henry Luce Senior Fellow at the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, between 2002 and 2003.
[3] Cochran was appointed the Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History in July 2004.
[4] In May 2010, the China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) Program at Cornell decided to establish the Sherman Cochran Prize in honor of Professor Cochran, Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History and CAPS founding director, for his great contribution to the establishment and development of the program.