Lukáš Spíchal
MSc. in biology and chemistry, high-school teaching program Palacký University Olomouc 2002; Ph.D. in Biology at Palacký University in Olomouc 2005; in total 1.5 years of research stays at Free University, Berlin, Germany (2002-2012).
Since 2010, Lukáš Spíchal has worked as senior researcher at the Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, where, since 2021, he has been a leader of the Phenotyping research group within the Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN). He also worked as a group leader at the Laboratory of Growth Regulators, Faculty of Science UP Olomouc and the Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR (2005–2019). He was a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Experimental Botany, AS CR (2012-2016). In 2012, he was awarded a prize “The best R&D team competition“ at the international Bioforum, Brno, Czech Republic.
His scientific interest covers chemical biology of plant hormones, development of agrochemicals and technologies for plant growth regulation, high-throughput bioassaying and automated plant phenotyping (WoS: >110 publications, > 3500 citations, h-index 34, > 30 granted patents, three of which licensed to commercial entities, including multinationals). In 2022, his name featured on the list of Highly Cited Researchers™ by Clarivate. So far, he has supervised 4 Ph.D., 5 master’s, and 4 bachelor’s students, taught a course in general biology and given field seminars at the Faculty of Science.
Lukáš Spíchal has been the main applicant and co-applicant of four national grants for basic and applied research (GAČR and TAČR, > 50 mil. CZK). He was a leader of research programs of OP VVV projects “Excellent Research” and “ITI”. In 2017 he founded the Czech Plant Phentyping network (CzPPN). He is its coordinator and a Czech representative in Support Group of ESFRI project EMPHASIS. He was also a member of the Technical Commission CEN/TC 455 “Plant Biostimulants“ at the European Standardization Committee (CEN).
In 2011, he co-founded a spin-off company AgroBioChem, s.r.o., closely collaborating with Palacký University in research and development of new technologies and products for regulation of plant growth and development.