Prof. Mirko Kovač is one of the world’s leading experts in robotics, bio-inspired drones and sustainable technologies of the future.
As Founding Director of the Competence Centre for Sustainability Robotics and Director of the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics at Empa in Zurich and EPFL in Lausanne, he develops robotic solutions designed to protect nature, infrastructure and society.
His work combines scientific excellence with practical benefits: Kovač researches drones and autonomous systems modelled on biological examples, which are used for environmental monitoring, nature conservation, infrastructure inspection and repair tasks. In doing so, he is shaping the new field of sustainability robotics.
As an Honorary Professor at Imperial College London, a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and an internationally sought-after keynote speaker, Mirko Kovač demonstrates how robotics and artificial intelligence enable sustainable innovation. His talks are visionary, accessible and scientifically sound – catering to business, research, politics and society.
An interview with Mirko Kovač:
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
My keynotes are about how nature can inspire the machines we build, and what that means for the real world. I’m fascinated by how animals fly, swim, and perch, and how that wisdom can guide robot design. A lot of my work involves drones that move across air and water, place sensors deep in forests, sample our oceans, or land on structures to help build and repair the infrastructure we all depend on.
But the deeper theme is how robotics and AI can help us understand and protect the planet, and how organizations can turn that potential into something they actually deploy. I love sharing not just the science, but the sense of possibility, where these ideas come from, how we move them out of the lab into the field, and what they mean for a more sustainable future.
2. Which audiance or which branch do you reach with your speech?
My talks resonate across a wide range, from C-level leaders and entrepreneurs to academics, students, and general audiences, because the questions I’m wrestling with are fundamentally human ones about the future we want to build.
But where I think it lands most powerfully is with people in leadership positions, especially in industries connected to nature and infrastructure, who are looking for genuine reasons for optimism. They’re navigating enormous pressure and complexity, and I want to show them that technology, used thoughtfully, can be a force for hope rather than just disruption.
My aim is to leave decision-makers feeling both inspired and equipped to imagine bolder, more life-supporting directions for their organizations.
3. Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
I’d say what I bring is a perspective you can’t get from a trend report: insights drawn from years of deep observation of nature and from building real systems that work in the real world. Nature has spent millions of years solving problems of efficiency, resilience, and adaptation, and when you study it closely, it becomes a profound source of both engineering solutions and creative inspiration. I try to connect those observations to a bigger picture, what a desirable, sustainable future could actually look like, and how we get there. So my talks aren’t only about robots; they’re about a way of thinking, of looking at the living world as a partner and a teacher in designing what comes next.
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
Time matters enormously to me. The future isn’t fixed, it can unfold in many different directions, and the choices we make now genuinely shape which one we get. I want that future to be positive and life-supporting, and I believe we have a real chance to create it together.
That’s the whole spirit of sustainability robotics: using these technologies not to extract more from the planet, but to help it heal and thrive. When I look ahead, I don’t see an inevitability we have to brace for, I see a canvas we get to shape, and I want audiences to leave feeling that they have agency in painting it.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
One idea that has stayed with me, from John Daido Loori’s The Zen of Creativity, is that real simplicity is earned by working through complexity, not avoiding it.
That’s close to how I try to live and work: if you want to reach something elegant and simple, you first have to immerse yourself in the complexity, and that’s where real creativity lives. What I most want listeners to take away is that we can innovate across disciplines, that the boundaries between fields are where the most exciting ideas hide, and that even amid the daily lockdown of operations and routine, we can stay free, curious, and inspired.
If I can send people back to their work feeling a little more creative and a little more hopeful, then I’ve done my job.