From PhD to Head of Research Group and Project Manager; Contipro (CZE)

With Josef Chmelar, PhD 

Josef Chmelar, PhD, studied at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, where he obtained both his master's degree and PhD in Chemical Engineering. During his time at the university, his research focused on synthetic polymers, especially polyolefins. By the time he defended his dissertation, he had already begun his professional career at Contipro, one of the global leaders in hyaluronic acid production, processing, and research. Transitioning from academia to Contipro thus marked a shift towards biomaterials, but not away from macromolecules.

Josef started his career at Contipro as a Junior Researcher and gradually progressed to the roles of Senior Researcher, Head of Research Group and finally Project Manager (since 2024). Throughout this time, he has been involved in a wide range of R&D activities, from applied research of hyaluronan-based materials to medical device development, scale-up and process optimization. He also gained valuable experience in managing a team of over 30 professionals, an important part of which was the mentoring of younger colleagues. Despite more than 10 years in industry, Josef remains an actively publishing scientific author, with an h-index of 11 and over 300 citations in Scopus.