Frederick Cohan is a professor of biology and environmental studies at Wesleyan University with a focus on the origins of diversity in bacteria. He has a strong interest in understanding the similarities and differences in species and speciation across various domains of life. Cohan's research delves into how bacterial diversity and speciation are impacted by high populations and rare genetic exchange. He aims to create straightforward bacterial systematics to identify newly divergent species despite limited knowledge of differences in physiology and ecology.

Cohan earned his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He has taught courses about bacterial diversity origins, ecological bioinformatics, infectious disease, and global change, and has supervised ten students who graduated with PhD or Masters' degrees.