Rate My Professor Grant Jensen

Grant Jensen is Dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Brigham Young University, a position he has held since November 2020. His academic journey began with a B.S. in Physics from Brigham Young University in 1994, where he graduated as valedictorian of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University in 1999 under Professor Roger D. Kornberg, followed by postdoctoral training in Biophysics at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1999 to 2002 with Dr. Kenneth H. Downing. Prior to BYU, Jensen was Professor of Biology and Biophysics at the California Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2022, Director of the Caltech Center for Cryo-EM from 2017 to 2022, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 2008 to 2020, Associate Professor of Biology from 2008 to 2010, and Assistant Professor of Biology from 2002 to 2008. He also held an adjunct position as Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at UCLA Medical School from 2010 to 2022.

Jensen's research in biology employs cryo-electron tomography to elucidate microbial cell biology, focusing on cellular nanomachines, cell division, motility, secretion, cytoskeleton, subcellular compartmentalization, and bacterial warfare across nearly 100 microbial species, as well as HIV structural biology at all stages. His highly influential publications include "Type VI secretion requires a dynamic contractile phage tail-like structure" (Nature, 2012), "Magnetosomes are cell membrane invaginations organized by the actin-like protein MamK" (Science, 2006), "The structure of FtsZ filaments in vivo suggests a force-generating role in cell division" (EMBO Journal, 2007), "Architecture of the type IVa pilus machine" (Biophysical Journal, 2016), "Universal architecture of bacterial chemoreceptor arrays" (PNAS, 2009), and "Molecular organization of Gram-negative peptidoglycan" (PNAS, 2008), amassing over 22,000 citations. Major awards encompass Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2024), Izatt-Christensen Faculty Excellence in Research Award (2023), Searle Scholar (2004-2006), Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellow (1999-2002), and Microscopy Society of America Presidential Scholar (1998). He has chaired the Division of Cell and Structural Biology of the American Society of Microbiology (2010), served on scientific advisory boards for cryo-EM centers and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and contributed to NIH review panels and Faculty of 1000 in Structural Biology.