Robert K. Tyson holds a Ph.D. in Physics and MS in Physics from West Virginia University and a BS in Physics from Penn State University. Dr. Tyson has been a Senior Scientist at W.J. Schafer Associates, Inc. since 1987. He is currently supporting efforts in atmospheric propagation, space-based laser technology, astronomical instrumentation, and adaptive optics performance studies. He has contributed to technology development in the areas of wavefront sensors, deformable mirrors, microsurgical laser systems, and electronic countermeasures. Besides being the author of
Principles of Adaptive Optics (Academic Press), he is the co-author of a chapter on adaptive optics in
The Infrared & Electro-Optical Systems Handbook (ERIM & SPIE Press, Bellingham, Washington, 1993). He has more than twenty-five publications in the fields of optical aberration theory, adaptive optics systems, laser communications, medical imaging, and computer simulation technologies. He serves as a chairman of the SPIE International Technical Working Group on Adaptive Optics. Dr. Tyson was the invited lecturer at a University of Oxford physics colloquium in 1993 and lectured at Moscow State University in 1995. Before joining WJSA, Dr. Tyson was a Senior Project Engineer at United Technologies Optical Systems from 1978-1987. He was senior engineer in the Phased Array program office of United Technologies Optical Systems. He was technical director and deputy program manager of the Phased Array Concept Study and Brassboard (PACSBB) program for the Air Force Phillips Laboratory and BMDO. Prior to assignment to PACSBB, Dr. Tyson was manager and principal investigator of a number of beam control and optics contracts in both strategic and tactical areas.