Dr. Klavs F. Jensen stands as a preeminent figure in chemical engineering whose career has been defined by groundbreaking innovations in reaction systems design. He currently holds the prestigious Warren K. Lewis Professorship in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he has been a faculty member since 1989. Born in Denmark in 1952, Jensen received his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 1976 followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980 under the supervision of W. Harmon Ray. Prior to joining MIT, he established his academic career at the University of Minnesota where he served as assistant, associate, and full professor from 1980 to 1989. His leadership at MIT extended beyond research as he served as Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2007 to 2015.
Professor Jensen's pioneering work in micro and mini flow reactor technology has revolutionized approaches to chemical synthesis and manufacturing through the elegant integration of engineering principles, physical models, and chemical insights. His research on microsystems for chemical and biological applications has created new paradigms for on-demand multistep synthesis, enabling precise control of reaction conditions that was previously unattainable with conventional batch methods. These innovations have yielded significant applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing, portable energy systems, and the characterization of heterogeneous catalysts, with his methods allowing experiments under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature. Jensen's contributions to multi-scale chemical reaction engineering have been particularly impactful in microelectronic materials processing and microreactor technology, earning him election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. His extensive scholarly output includes over 460 refereed journal publications and 50 US patents that have shaped the field of continuous flow chemistry.
Beyond his technical contributions, Jensen has played a transformative role in bridging chemistry and chemical engineering through his founding leadership of MIT's Pharma AI consortium, which aims to integrate machine learning technologies into pharmaceutical discovery and development. He serves as co-director of this initiative while also chairing the editorial board of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Reaction Chemistry and Engineering journal, which he founded to specifically address the interface between these disciplines. Jensen's influence extends through his mentorship of numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to leadership positions across academia and industry, fostering a new generation of innovators in chemical process engineering. His current research focuses on advancing automated synthesis methods, machine learning techniques for chemical synthesis, and the interpretation of large chemical data sets, positioning him at the forefront of the digital transformation in chemical manufacturing. As an active member of both the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences, Jensen continues to shape the future direction of chemical engineering through his integrative approach to solving complex problems in molecular synthesis and process design.
