Dr. Amol Thakkar is a Data Scientist for the AI & Robotics Institute at EIT, with an interest in contributing to the development of AI strategies and practical tools that deliver real-world impact.

Before joining EIT, Amol was a Research Staff Member at IBM Research – Zurich, where he worked across research, consulting, and product-focused projects aimed at accelerating scientific discovery using artificial intelligence. His work has included developing machine learning tools for chemical synthesis, systems for automatic activity recognition, and conversational text-to-SQL. A central theme in Amol’s work has been building AI tools to support domain experts in making informed decisions.

His experience spans the full development lifecycle. From lab-based research to the design, deployment, and productionisation of AI tools for both early-stage discovery and scale-up. His contributions are applied across the chemicals industry, including pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Amol holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bern, Switzerland, completed in collaboration with AstraZeneca in Sweden as part of a Marie-Curie Fellowship. He earned his MChem from the University of St. Andrews, with an industrial placement at Pfizer.

Outside of work, Amol is an avid outdoor adventure sport enthusiast and is always on the lookout for new projects. If there’s water or mountains nearby, chances are he’s there. He also enjoys cooking and reading.

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