 Her main area of research is non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and in August 2019 PoreLab hosted «The International Workshop on Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics in Porous Media» on the occasion of professor Kjelstrup's 70th birthday.Kjelstrup was born in Oslo.She has an Msc (sivilingeniør) in chemistry from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH), Trondheim, (1971) and her thesis received the honour «commended to the King» ("laudabilis cum litteris commendatitiis").