Bio

A short bio you can use for talk announcements.

Kevin Jablonka leads an independent research group at the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications (HIPOLE Jena) and Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, where he builds AI systems that accelerate materials discovery. He has published 66 papers, accumulated over 4,500 citations, with over 40% of his corresponding-author work in Nature-family journals or A* conferences. His research has been highlighted in Nature, Nature Reviews Materials, MIT Technology Review, and Chemistry World, among others.

Kevin secured over €4M in research funding as PI from the Carl Zeiss Foundation, OpenPhilanthropy, Intel-Merck, and the Helmholtz Foundation Model Initiative, and serves as Co-Speaker of the FAIRMat NFDI consortium. He currently mentors 11 Ph.D. students and one PostDoc, and received the “Best Research Environment” award from Die Junge Akademie and the Volkswagen Foundation. He is an area chair for NeurIPS, a Google Research Scholar, a member of the Foresight Institute, and was a red teamer for OpenAI. Kevin earned his Ph.D. at EPFL (Chorafas Foundation award, top 8% thesis distinction) after finishing his master’s with the 2nd-highest GPA among all EPFL graduates and the best GPA in chemistry.

Shorter version

Kevin Jablonka leads an independent research group at HIPOLE Jena and Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, building AI systems for materials discovery. He has 66 publications, over 4,500 citations, and over €4M in PI funding. He is a Google Research Scholar, NeurIPS area chair, and Co-Speaker of the FAIRMat NFDI consortium.

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If you need a headshot, you can use one of these (photographer: Marina Romanova/HIPOLE Jena).

Short CV

Key Career Milestones

Jun 2023 - Present: Independent Research Group Leader (Tenure Track with right to award doctoral degrees)
CZS Research Group at HIPOLE Jena and Friedrich-Schiller University Jena

Jul 2024 - Dec 2025: Red Teamer (Independent Contractor)
OpenAI

Aug 2019 - Jun 2023: Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award for outstanding Ph.D. work
Doctoral program Top 8% Thesis Distinction

Sep 2017 - Jul 2019: MSc. in Chemistry (high distinction, 5.95/6.00)
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
2nd best GPA among all master graduates at EPFL, best GPA in chemistry

Oct 2014 - Aug 2017: BSc. in Chemistry (high distinction, 1.2/1.0)
Technical University of Munich, Germany

Academic Summary

Leadership

Founder of the LAMALab focused on AI-accelerated materials discovery. Co-Speaker of the FAIRMat NFDI consortium (leading the area “Enabling Data-driven Science”). Co-Leader of WG3 (Multi-modal machine learning methods) in DAEMON COST action. Organized global LLM hackathons for materials science, resulting in publications with >40 co-authors.

Research Impact

66 publications. Over 4,500 citations. Over 40% of corresponding-author papers in Nature-family journals or A* conferences. Research highlighted in Nature, Nature Reviews Materials, Materials Today, Chemistry World, MIT Technology Review, and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. See Google Scholar.

Funding

Secured over €4M as PI from diverse sources, including Carl-Zeiss Foundation, OpenPhilanthropy, Intel-Merck, and Helmholtz Foundation Model Initiative.

Teaching Innovation

Developed flipped classroom ML courses. Created open educational resources: online book on LLM data extraction methods and interactive web environments for spectroscopy teaching. Guest lecturer at international schools.

Mentorship

Currently mentoring 11 Ph.D. students and one PostDoc. Trained in scientific leadership by the Helmholtz Leadership Academy. “Best Research Environment” award by Die Junge Akademie and the Volkswagen Foundation.

Public Impact

Featured on AI podcasts (e.g. from ARD). Jury member and mentor for German national student science fairs. Speaker at Young Chemists Network of the German Chemical Society. Hands-on workshop organizer for international hackathons, workshops and conferences.

Selected Honors

  • Helmholtz AI Award for Best Digital Resource (ChemBench, 2025)
  • Google Research Scholar Award (2025)
  • “Best Research Environment” award by Die Junge Akademie and the Volkswagen Foundation (2025)
  • Finalist for “Rising Star in Computational Materials Science” (2025)
  • Member of the Foresight Institute (Berlin node, 2026)
  • Election into the Junge Akademie | Mainz
  • Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award for outstanding Ph.D. thesis (2023)
  • Member of the CAS FutureLeaders 2022 cohort
  • Alfred-Werner scholarship by the Swiss Chemical Society (2017)
  • Scholarship by the German scholarship foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, 2015)