Valery Fokin is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California, Director of the Agilent Center of Excellence in Biomolecular Characterization, Co-Director of the Bridge Institute, and a faculty member of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. He studied at N.I. Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod and Calvin College before receiving his PhD from USC in 1998 with Nicos Petasis. He subsequently joined K. Barry Sharpless for postdoctoral studies at The Scripps Research Institute, where he became a faculty member in 2000. In 2015, he returned to USC.

Fokin’s research focuses on the discovery of new chemical reactivity and catalytic transformations and their applications to problems in chemistry, biology, and medicine. A major theme of his work has been the activation of alkynes by transition metals, particularly copper (I)-catalyzed transformations in aqueous environments.

He made pioneering contributions to the discovery and development of the copper- and ruthenium-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions, CuAAC and RuAAC. His work on CuAAC, including the invention and subsequent development of practical copper catalysis in water in the presence of ascorbate, helped establish the reaction as a broadly useful tool in synthetic chemistry, chemical biology, bioconjugation, and materials science. His laboratory has also developed new chemistry of 1,2,3-triazoles involving azavinyl carbene and radical intermediates and applies these and related approaches to the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant compounds, molecular imaging, targeted drug delivery, and functional materials. Current projects involve studies of the endocannabinoid system, inflammation signaling, and chemical biology of membrane receptors.

Fokin has authored more than 150 publications and is an inventor on eighteen patents and patent applications. He was named a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate and has been recognized among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. His honors include the 2025 American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention and the 2025 VYZOV Prize.

Discoveries from Fokin and his collaborators have been translated into widely used research, diagnostic, and therapeutic technologies, including Click-iT imaging tools, Illumina next-generation sequencing platforms, and the antibody-drug conjugate medicine Trodelvy®.