Sir David Klenerman

Professor Sir David Klenerman is a physical chemist who completed his degree and doctorate at the University of Cambridge, followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University. He worked for BP Research in the United Kingdom for seven years, before eventually joining the faculty of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry. He is currently Royal Society GSK Professor of Molecular Medicine at Cambridge, focusing on the development and application of physical methods, particularly laser spectroscopy and single molecule fluorescence, to biological and biomedical problems.

Sir David is best known for co-inventing next-generation DNA sequencing with Sir Shankar Balasubramanian. They were jointly awarded the 2018 Royal Medal, the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize and the 2024 Novo Nordisk Prize. Together with Pascal Mayer, they are also co-recipients of the 2022 Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences and the 2024 Canada Gairdner International Award.