Mirko Kovac

Prof. Mirko Kovac is director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory, full Professor at Imperial College London and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow. He is also heading the Materials and Technology Centre of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in Zürich. His research group focusses on the development of novel, aerial robots for distributed sensing and autonomous manufacturing in complex natural and man-made environments. Prof. Kovac’s particular specialisation is in robot design, hardware development and multi-modal robot mobility. Before his appointment in London, he was post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University and he obtained his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in 2005. Since 2006, he has presented his work in >70 international proceedings and journals, has won several best paper awards and has delivered >30 keynote lectures. He also regularly acts as advisor to government, investment funds and industry on robotics opportunities.