Dirk Voelkel

Vice President Innovation

Having been inspired by science fiction since childhood, Dr. Dirk Voelkel’s mission is to make science even weirder.

He’s now tasked with leading Cytiva Innovation, where he and the team are asking “why not?” and“how?” they can make healthcare more precise, using technology to benefit patients, researchers and clinicians and translating inventions into products.

More seriously, he also manages innovation management for the business, ensuring great design and user experience for customers, R&D portfolio management as well as innovation coaching for R&D teams.

His teams also support manufacturing and R&D with data analytical tools. Dirk joined Cytiva in 2012, having been Head of Research and Technology at Roche Diagnostics Diabetes Care Mannheim from 2006 to 2012.

During his career, Dirk has lived in California, Germany and Sweden. He speaks three languages which served him well when he was a technology scout in the San Francisco Bay area in the 2001-2005.

Earlier he was an inventor himself, resulting in several patents in his name. Dirk earned his doctorate and diploma for Physics from the University of Göttingen. He performed his research in laser spectroscopy in the mid-IR at the Max Planck Institute for Fluid Dynamics (recently renamed to Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization) as well as at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, CA.