Andrew Králíček
Founder and CTO, Scentian Bio
Dr Andrew Králíček is the founder and chief technology officer of Scentian Bio and former team leader of the Molecular Sensing Team at Plant & Food Research. Andrew has spent almost two decades working out how to harness the powerful sense of smell that insects have, to revolutionise the world of electronic sensors.
His team's technological breakthrough led to the development of a proof of principle prototype showing that insect smell receptors can be used for the detection of miniscule amounts of volatile compounds. Possible commercial applications range from human health, food quality, pest and disease detection and environmental monitoring.
In 2015, Andrew was the first researcher selected for the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator programme which is focussed on turning scientists into entrepreneurs. In 2018, he was awarded the BNZ Supreme Award at the KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards.
