Klavs F. Jensen

Professor Klavs F. Jensen is the Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. His research focuses on integrating automation, machine learning, and robotics to accelerate materials discovery and pharmaceutical synthesis. He leads the Jensen Research Group, pioneering automated reaction systems with online analytics and optimization algorithms.

Education: MS in Chemical Engineering (Technical University of Denmark, 1976); PhD in Chemical Engineering (University of Wisconsin, 1980).

Research Interests: Thermochemistry, electrochemistry, photochemistry, Bayesian optimization, high-throughput experimentation, and AI-driven synthesis planning. He collaborates with MIT’s Machine Learning for Pharmaceutical Discovery Consortium to develop algorithms for drug development and process chemistry.

Awards: Member of National Academy of Sciences (2017), Member of National Academy of Engineering (2002), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007), and Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2022).

Grants & Labs: Editor-in-Chief of Reaction Chemistry and Engineering; holds 63 US patents and over 490 journal articles. His lab’s innovations include ASKCOS (open-source synthesis planning software) and automated platforms for closed-loop molecular discovery.