is Head of the Materials and Technology Center of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. He is also Director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow.  His research is focussed on the development of flying and biohybrid soft robotic solutions for digital infrastructure systems. Prof. Kovac's particular specialisation is in robot design, hardware development and multi-modal robot mobility. 

Previously, he was post-doctoral researcher at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory as part of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA. He obtained his PhD with the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems 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. During his studies he was research associate with the University of California in Berkeley USA, RIETER Automotive Switzerland, the WARTSILA Diesel Technology Division in Switzerland, and CISERV in Singapore.

Since 2006, he has presented his work in more than 70 international proceedings and journals and has won several best paper awards. He has also delivered more than 30 keynote lectures and he regularly acts as advisor to government, investment funds and industry on robotics opportunities.