Dr. Miroslav Petro

Dr. Miroslav Petro, a co-founder of NeoTek, is a seasoned scientist and technical executive, with broad experience and deep knowledge in material science, engineering and chemistry, focusing on molecular interactions and separations. Before joining NeoTek’s team, he founded, and led Senzex Corporation, a contract research and technology development company. In his role as President of Senzex, he brought into the company multiple collaboration programs that enabled rapid growth and profitability. Also, he served as a Principal Investigator on a multi-million energy program on high-temperature geothermal interactions between rocks and fluids containing CO₂, co-funded by DOE and Palo Alto Research Center. He is on the Industrial Board of Peer Reviewers for the DOE’s Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Prior to Senzex, Dr Petro was a research scientist at Symyx Technologies, where he spent over a decade in several scientific and R&D management positions. Here, he contributed to over $300 million in collaboration revenue and leading efforts in material discovery and technology development programs, including a multi-year effort in functional materials, membrane optimization and sensor development. As a scientist, he developed a variety of high—throughput techniques for material property screening and characterization, co-forming a core of the IP strategy for Symyx as a startup company. Dr. Petro holds a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Chemistry from Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as a MS and a BS in Analytical Chemistry from the Comenius University in Slovakia. He continued in post-doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the University of California at Berkeley. During his career, he has made significant contributions to over 40 scientific papers in renowned journals and about 30 granted patents.