Mirko Kovac

Prof. Mirko Kovac is a leading academic in robotics, holding professorial and leadership roles at Imperial College London, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa). He heads the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics at Empa and EPFL, focusing on innovative mobile robotic systems for environmental applications.

His educational background includes a PhD from EPFL and a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree from ETH Zurich (2005). Prior to his current appointments, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University.

Prof. Kovac's research centers on robotics for sustainability, particularly in robot design, hardware development, and multi-modal sensor mobility. His work enables autonomous systems to operate in complex natural environments for distributed sensing and manufacturing. He is recognized for advancing the integration of robotics into ecological monitoring and sustainable infrastructure.

His publications and presentations reflect strong activity in the robotics community, with over 100 peer-reviewed papers and more than 100 invited and keynote lectures. The body of work indicates deep engagement in mobile robotics, environmental robotics, and autonomous system design, forming a cohesive research trajectory in sustainability-focused AI and robotics.

• Best Paper Awards

Prof. Kovac advises government, investment funds, and industry on robotics opportunities, indicating significant impact beyond academia. He has not advised any named students in the provided text, nor are specific grants mentioned, but his leadership of a major robotics laboratory suggests active supervision and funding acquisition.

He leads the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics, a multidisciplinary team focused on developing novel mobile robots for real-world environmental challenges, operating across Empa and EPFL.