Robert is currently the Director of Engineering and Operations at Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory. In this role, he oversees SDL internal operations including manufacturing shops, labs, information technology, quality assurance, and education outreach. He is also responsible for all engineering processes, training, and procedures used at SDL.Robert graduated from Utah State University in 1989 in Electrical Engineering and later received a master’s degree at the same institution with an emphasis on spacecraft electrical power systems. Prior to employment at SDL, he worked for Orbital Sciences, now Northrup Grumman, where he participated on multiple launch campaigns for the Department of Defense Targets program designing the flight termination systems and serving as the electrical systems lead. After joining SDL in 2000, Robert began working on space weather instruments. In April of 2012, he served as the SDL lead electrical systems engineer for the OSIRIS-REx visible camera suite called “OCAMS.” OSIRIS-REx launched in 2016, collected a sample of the asteroid Bennu in October 2020, and returned to Earth in 2023. More recently, Robert was the civil space division branch head over small satellite technologies and has been the engineering functional POC for the new Manufacturing building and the new Baker Integration & Test building.