PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Pakpong Chirarattananon

Pakpong Chirarattananon is a roboticist whose work brings ideas from insect flight into small aerial robots. He studied natural sciences and computational biology at Cambridge, completed an engineering sciences PhD at Harvard, and co-led the RoboBee paper that reported its first controlled flight. At CityUHK, he led research on aerial, legged and hybrid robotic systems, coauthored the 2014 Fly on the wall paper about wall landing, and received the 2024 Outstanding Research Award for Junior Faculty. He joined the University of Toronto in August 2025 and is an associate professor and principal investigator there as of October 2026, where his research uses intelligent design in bio-inspired robotics.

Works
84
Citations
4,537
h-index
26

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2009–2010

    Cambridge degrees

    He earns a BA in Natural Sciences at Cambridge in 2009 and an MPhil in Computational Biology there in 2010.

  2. 2013

    RoboBee's controlled flight

    In 2013, he co-leads the Science paper reporting RoboBee's first controlled flight. The insect-scale design draws on fly biology.

  3. 2014

    A Harvard PhD

    He completes a PhD in Engineering Sciences at Harvard in 2014.

  4. 2014

    Fly on the wall

    In 2014, he coauthors the conference paper Fly on the wall, which shows an insect-scale flapping-wing robot mimicking a wall-landing maneuver.

  5. 2021

    An IEEE robotics award

    He receives the 2021 IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award.

  6. 2024

    A CityUHK research award

    CityUHK recognizes him with its Outstanding Research Award for Junior Faculty in 2024.

  7. August 2025

    Joining Toronto MIE

    At CityUHK, he leads a research group across aerial, legged and hybrid robotic systems. In August 2025, he joins the University of Toronto’s Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate Professor at Toronto

    As of October 2026, he is a principal investigator and associate professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. His research focuses on bioinspired robotics and micro aerial vehicles, using intelligent design to create smaller, capable systems.

Career

  1. NowUniversity of TorontoAssociate Professor
  2. NowUniversity of TorontoPrincipal Investigator
  3. From 2025University of Toronto
  4. City University of Hong KongResearch Group Leader

Education

  1. 2014Harvard UniversityPhD in Engineering Sciences
  2. 2010University of CambridgeMPhil in Computational Biology
  3. 2009University of CambridgeBA in Natural Sciences

From the biography.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Pakpong Chirarattananon yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Pakpong CHIRARATTANANON - CityUHK Scholars scholars.cityu.edu.hk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Robotic insects make first controlled flight seas.harvard.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. Pakpong Chirarattananon - Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering mie.utoronto.ca. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Fly on the wall - CityUHK Scholars scholars.cityu.edu.hk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. CLIMB Lab — University of Toronto climb.mie.utoronto.ca. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. CLIMB Lab — University of Toronto climb.mie.utoronto.ca. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. ‘Simplicity wins when designing bio-inspired robots’: Meet MIE Professor Pakpong Chirarattananon news.engineering.utoronto.ca. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. CLIMB Lab — University of Toronto climb.mie.utoronto.ca. Checked 27 October 2026.