Dr. Safacan Kölemen graduated from the Chemistry Department, Bilkent University in 2008. After completing his MSc studies in the same department, he earned his PhD from the National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM), Material Science and Nanotechnology program at Bilkent University in 2014. Later, Dr. Kölemen moved to University of California, Berkeley Chemistry Department as a postdoctoral researcher, where he worked on the development of fluorescent sensors. In 2017, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Koç University as an Assistant Professor and established the Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology laboratory. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2023. His current research focuses on the development of tumor selective phototherapy agents and fluorescent/chemiluminescent molecular sensors for bioimaging applications. He is the recipient of the BAGEP and TUBA-GEBIP awards.

Dr. Kölemen serves as an associate editor in Frontiers in Chemistry, and he is a member of the editorial advisory board of ACS Central Science and ACS Bio&Med Chem Au.