Josef Průša

Josef Průša turned a teenage hobby into a global 3D printing powerhouse.

Josef Průša is on a mission to make 3D printing more accessible. Fascinated by the technology as a teenager, he launched Prusa Research at the age of 22. Less than a decade later, he’s grown the company into one of the world’s largest manufacturers of 3D printers and cartridges.

Josef built his first 3D printing model using plans he found on the internet. He wanted to make the expensive industrial machines more affordable and user friendly, so he pioneered a new desktop 3D printer and founded Prusa Research in 2012 with plans to grow the market. 

Today, Prusa Research is a multimillion-dollar manufacturer of 3D printers with more than 600 employees and distribution across 160 countries. The company produces 10,000 printers a month that are sold online.

Josef has also used his technology to help during the pandemic, developing protective face shields for medical workers and distributing a quarter million of them for free. Later, the company published detailed plans for the shields so that people around the world could make them on their own 3D printers. In recognition of that effort, Josef was awarded the Czech Red Cross in 2020. 

*Information correct as of June 2021.