Juha-Pekka Pitkänen is Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Solar Foods Oyj, a Finnish food-tech company pioneering Solein®, a protein produced from CO₂, renewable electricity, and water. With a Doctor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology in 2005, Juha-Pekka has over two decades of experience in industrial biotechnology and bioprocess engineering.
Before Solar Foods, Juha-Pekka worked at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland as Principal Scientist involved in projects on sustainable bioprocesses. Overall, half of his career he has been at VTT and another half in startups. He has focused on developing technologies that enable more sustainable food and chemical production. Juha-Pekka Pitkänen is also the chairperson of Industrial Biotechnology Cluster of Finland since 1st January 2025