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Connor Coley

Principal Investigator

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.

Research website

Awards and Accolades

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

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