UCSD - University of California - San Diego
09/26/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/26/2025 09:35
UC San Diego Chemists Form Lifelong Bonds
Story by:
- Michelle Franklin- [email protected]
Published Date
September 26, 2025Article Content
It can be a rare occurrence to find a co-worker with whom you can collaborate in a meaningful way, and rarer still to find two of them. Yet three professors in UC San Diego's Department of Chemistry did just that. Seth Cohen, Joshua Figueroa and Akif Tezcan all started their careers at UC San Diego around the same time in the early aughts. Twenty years on, they have - yes, we have to say it - a unique chemistry in and out of the lab.
All three have recently received noteworthy awards for their research (see sidebar). In this Q&A they talk about their work, meaningful collaborations and the future of scientific research.
Q: What kind of research do you do?
Seth Cohen:Research in the Cohen laboratory focuses broadly on two distinct topic areas - drug development and materials chemistry.
(l-r) Figueroa and Tezcan camping in Joshua Tree National Park (2021).
Joshua Figueroa:Research in the Figueroa group focuses on synthetic inorganic, organometallic and materials chemistry.
Akif Tezcan: The Tezcan group works on the design of functional metalloproteins and protein-based materials, as well as on the mechanistic and structural understanding of biological nitrogen fixation.
Q: What is the most unexpected thing that has happened in your research?
Tezcan:The most unexpected thing has been that our original ideas from when my lab first started at UC San Diego not only came to fruition as planned, but they worked out so much better than we would have hoped, leading us into new research areas and keeping us on our toes all the time.
Figueroa: Similar to Akif, the most surprising aspect of my research is that our original idea for new organometallic chemistry enabled such a broad range of research directions, especially in areas such as catalysis, synthetic organic chemistry, main-group chemistry, materials/nano chemistry and surface science.
Q: Why did you choose UC San Diego?
Cohen: I'm a native Southern Californian, so it was a great combination of location and quality of the university.
Figueroa: I wanted to be involved in building a world-class program in inorganic chemistry and it was clear to me, due to the amazing and inspiring colleagues that were already here, that it could happen at UC San Diego (and it sure did!).
Kudos
All three professors have recently received noteworthy recongnitions for their chemistry research.
Seth Cohen 2025 Centenary Prize for Chemistry and Communication from the Royal Society of Chemistry
Joshua Figueroa 2026 F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society
Akif Tezcan 2026 Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society
(l-r) Cohen and Tezcan celebrating at Cohen's wedding (2022).
Tezcan:Terrific colleagues whom I can relate to both scientifically and personally, great programs in inorganic and biological chemistry, which my group draws its strength from, and the ocean. San Diego is a great place to live and to raise a family.
Q: You've all collaborated on papers together. What do the other two bring to the table that complements your own work?
Cohen:Collaborating with colleagues like Akif and Josh is always a pleasure. We love to share ideas, divide and conquer on new concepts and produce great new science. Akif and I have long had common interests and found areas to collaborate on. More recently, Josh and I have been particularly well-aligned on developing a new class of catalytic materials where our expertise is very complementary to each other.
Figueroa: This is one of the great aspects of inorganic chemistry at UC San Diego and our department in general. Seth, Akif and I bring complementary expertise that we can leverage as a team to solve bigger problems. I particularly enjoy aiding Seth's and Akif's projects with electronic structure calculations, as it helps me think about chemical systems more broadly, which positively impacts my own projects.
Q: How important is it to have colleagues you can work with and talk to?
(l-r) Figueroa and Cohen off-roading in Moab, Utah (2023).
Cohen:More than important, it's a tremendous pleasure. I can pursue science I love on my own (to some extent), but pursuing it with colleagues like Akif and Josh not only makes our science more impactful, it makes my career and life better. We don't just make each other better scientists, we make lifelong friendships and bonds that are at least as valuable as the science we do together.
Figueroa: It's central to the job and life here at UC San Diego! I wanted to be part of a team, and that's exactly what I got here with colleagues like Seth and Akif. In fact, visitors always note how remarkable and unusual it is to have a large group of inorganic chemists that are not only highly productive, but also get along so well, work together seamlessly and are genuinely friends. It's a special place.
Tezcan:This is why I went last answering this question - because I have nothing to add!
Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges in chemistry and biochemistry?
Cohen:That is a big question and a difficult one for me to answer. I would say the biggest challenge chemistry and biochemistry faces right now, which much of the scientific and academic community is facing, is to make the public understand, appreciate and support academic research. I cannot think of a more challenging time in modern history for maintaining the scientific and technological superiority that the United States has spent nearly three-quarters of a century putting together. It is imperative that academic scientists, including those in chemistry and biochemistry, help communicate this message to the public so our nation doesn't lose what it spent decades building up and which contributes so much to the health and prosperity of our nation.
Tezcan:As Seth articulated, the biggest challenge is to sustain research in fundamental science and curiosity-driven research, which ultimately feeds applied science. The thrill of fundamental discoveries is what excited us about chemistry in the first place and drove us to pursue a career in academia.
Q: How do you hope your work will impact the field or, more broadly, society?
Cohen (l) and Figueroa (r) with fellow UC San Diego chemistry professor Cliff Kubiak at the American Chemical Society banquet (2018).
Cohen:In my case, I've been fortunate enough to spin out a startup company, Blacksmith Medicines, that is utilizing the science developed in our laboratory to develop new therapeutics for human health. I think the greatest capstone to our research would be if Blacksmith were to successfully transition a therapeutic into the clinic that would be used by patients.
Figueroa: My research focuses very heavily on fundamental questions in molecular design, electronic structure and chemical reactivity. I'm often pursuing problems that on the surface may seem quite esoteric. But deeper down, if there is any impact I strive for my work to have, it's just to show what's possible.
Tezcan:I can only hope that our research will lead inorganic chemists to think differently about proteins and biochemists to think differently about metals. The biggest impact I hope to have is on the students I mentor in the lab and the ones I teach in the classroom through which the excitement about scientific discoveries is propagated.
Share This:
UCSD - University of California - San Diego published this content on September 26, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 26, 2025 at 15:35 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]