Connor Coley is the Class of 1957 Career Development Professor and associate professor of chemical engineering, with a shared appointment in EECS. A principal investigator at the MIT Jameel Clinic, Coley’s research group develops new computational methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence and chemistry with relevance to small molecule drug discovery, chemical synthesis, and structure elucidation.
His research interests are in autonomous discovery, machine learning, laboratory automation, chemical synthesis, molecular design, and drug discovery.
He received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology in 2014. His M.S.C.E.P. and Ph.D. were obtained at MIT.
James W. Swan Outstanding Faculty, 2025
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 2025
Scialog Funding for Automated Laboratories, 2024
James W. Swan Outstanding Faculty, 2024
Samsung AI Researcher of the Year, 2023
Technology Review, 35 Innovators Under 35, 2023
Class of 1957 Career Development Professorship, 2023
Schwarzman College’s Inaugural Common Ground Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2023
Schmidt Futures AI2050 Early Career Fellows Award, 2022
Bayer Foundation Early Excellence in Science Award, 2021
NSF CAREER Award, 2021
CAS Future Leader, 2019
ACS CINF Scholarship for Scientific Excellence, 2019
Forbes 30 Under 30: Healthcare, 2019
AIChE PD2M Student Award, 2018
C&EN’s “Talented 12”, 2018
DARPA Riser, 2018
William C. Rousseau Award, MIT, 2016
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2014
Robert T. Haslam Presidential Graduate Fellowship, MIT, 2014
Frederic W. Hinrichs, Jr. Memorial Award, Caltech, 2014
Tau Beta Pi, 2013