Fernando P. Cossío Mora, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), San Sebastian-Donostia, Spain, has been appointed President of the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ; Spanisch Chemical Society), succeeding Antonio M. Echavarren Pablos at the start of his term in 2026.
Fernando P. Cossío Mora, born 1960 in San Martín de Villafufre, Cantabria, Spain, studied chemistry at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, and earned his Ph.D. at UPV/EHU in 1986, followed by research stays at CNRS, Talence-Bordeaux, France, and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA.
Since 2009, he is Professor of Organic Chemistry at UPV/EHU and Scientific Director of Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science.
His research spans computational and bioorganic chemistry, molecular modelling, pericyclic reactions and the design and synthesis of bioactive molecules with applications ranging from fundamental mechanisms to oncology and chemical synthesis. More recently, he is also interested in the connection between chemistry and particle physics (bicolor fluorescent sensors for cation tagging in nuclear reactions).
Among his many honors, Fernando Cossío Mora was awarded the Euskadi Research Prize in 2020, the RSEQ’s Gold Medal in 2021, the Ignacio Rivas Medal from the Organic Chemistry Group of the RSEQ in 2011, the Dr. Antonio Esteve Foundation Award in 2007, and the Almirall Award from the Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry in 1987. He is fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain since 2023 and a Chemistry Europe Fellow.
- Homepage of Cossío’s Group
- Homepage of RSEQ
- Homepage of Ikerbasque
- Homepage of UPV/EHU; new version currently under construction
Selected Publications
- Aizpea Zubia, Lorea Mendoza, Silvia Vivanco, Eneko Aldaba, Teresa Carrascal, Begoña Lecea, Ana Arrieta, Tahl Zimmerman, Fernando Vidal-Vanaclocha, Fernando P. Cossío, Application of Stereocontrolled Stepwise [3+2] Cycloadditions to the Preparation of Inhibitors of α4β1-Integrin-Mediated Hepatic Melanoma Metastasis, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200462497
- Fernando P. Cossío, Ana Arrieta, Miguel A. Sierra, The Mechanism of the Ketene Imine (Staudinger) Reaction in Its Centennial: Still an Usolved Problem?, Acc. Chem. Res. 2008. https://doi.org/10.1021/ar800033j
- Egoitz Conde, Davide Bello, Abel de Cózar, Mirian Sánchez, Miguel A. Vázquez, Fernando P. Cossío, Densely substituted unnatural L- and D-prolines as catalysts for highly enantioselective stereodivergent (3 + 2) cycloadditions and aldol reactions, Chem. Sci. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2sc20199b
- Ana Sanchez-Sanchez, Ivan Rivilla, Maddalen Agirre, Andere Basterretxea, Agustin Etxeberria, Antonio Veloso, Haritz Sardon, David Mecerreyes, Fernando P. Cossío, Enantioselective Ring-Opening Polymerization of rac-Lactide Dictated by Densely Substituted Amino Acids, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b13080
- María de Gracia Retamosa, Andrea Ruiz-Olalla, Tamara Bello, Abel de Cózar, and Fernando P. Cossío, A Three-Component Enantioselective Cyclization Reaction Catalyzed by an Unnatural Amino Acid Derivative, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201708952
- Iván Rivilla, Borja Aparicio, Juan M. Bueno, David Casanova, Claire Tonnelé, Zoraida Freixa, Pablo Herrero, Celia Rogero, José I. Miranda, Rosa M. Martínez-Ojeda, Francesc Monrabal, Beñat Olave, Thomas Schäfer, Pablo Artal, David Nygren, Fernando P. Cossío. Juan J. Gómez-Cadenas, Fluorescent bicolour sensor for low-background neutrinoless double β decay experiments, Nature 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2431-5
- Iván Rivilla, Mikel Odriozola-Gimeno, Antonio Aires, Ana Gimeno, Jesús Jiménez-Barbero, Miquel Torrent-Sucarrat, Aitziber L. Cortajarena, Fernando P. Cossío, Discovering Biomolecules with Huisgenase Activity: Designed Repeat Proteins as Biocatalysts for (3 + 2) Cycloadditions, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b06823
- María de Gracia Retamosa, Andrea Ruiz-Olalla, Maddalen Agirre, Abel de Cózar, Tamara Bello, Fernando P. Cossío, Additive and Emergent Catalytic Properties of Dimeric Unnatural Amino Acid Derivatives: Aldol and Conjugate Additions, Chem. Eur. J. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202102394
- Jacopo Dosso, Beatrice Bartolomei, Nicola Demitri, Fernando P. Cossío, Maurizio Prato, Phenanthrene-Extended Phenazine Dication: An Electrochromic Conformational Switch Presenting Dual Reactivity, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c00493
- Irene Olaizola, Mikel Odriozola-Gimeno, Paula Olaizola, Francisco J. Caballero-Camino, Noelia Pastor-Toyos, Mireia Tena-Garitaonaindia, Ainhoa Lapitz, Beatriz Val, Amanda R. Guimaraes, Maitane Asensio, Maider Huici-Izagirre, Colin Rae, David de Sancho, Xabier Lopez, Pedro M. Rodrigues, Elisa Herraez, Oscar Briz, Laura Izquierdo-Sanchez, Aitziber Eleta-Lopez, Alexander M. Bittner, Ana Martinez-Amesti, Teresa Miranda, Sumera I. Ilyas, Chiara Braconi, Maria J. Perugorria, Luis Bujanda, Iván Rivilla, Jose J.G. Marin, Fernando P. Cossío, Jesus M. Banales, New platinum derivatives selectively cause double-strand DNA breaks and death in naïve and cisplatin resistant cholangiocarcinomas, J. Hepatol. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2025.04.034
Also of Interest
- Author Profile: Fernando P. Cossío, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201104956
