Kim E Jelfs

Kim E. Jelfs is a computational chemist based at Imperial College London who was one of the recipients of the Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prizes in 2018. She develops software to predict the structures and properties of molecular systems for renewable energy.

Early life and education Jelfs studied chemistry at University College London. For her final year project, Jelfs worked at the Royal Institution. She earned her PhD in 2010, working with Ben Slater on modelling the growth of zeolitic materials.

Research and career After completing her PhD Jelfs joined the University of Barcelona, working with Stefan Bromley. She moved to the University of Liverpool, working as a postdoctoral researcher with Matthew Rosseinsky and Andrew Ian Cooper.

In 2013 she joined Imperial College London as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. Her research will consider porous molecules, organic small molecules and polymers. The models can also be used to predict the properties of amorphous frameworks and porous molecules.

In 2018 Jelfs was awarded the Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2019, she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in Chemistry. In 2025, Jelfs was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's Corday-Morgan Prize .