Robert Dickman
Bob Dickman is the Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a professional membership technical society with more than 35,000 members in 79 countries. AIAA organizes the Space Exploration conference as well as many other technical conferences for the aerospace industry. His career spans the space business from basic research in particle physics to command of the 45 Space Wing and Director of the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, FL. He served as the Air Force’s Director of Space programs, the Department of Defense Space Architect and the senior military officer at the National Reconnaissance Office. He retired from active duty in 2000 as a major general. From 2002 to 2005, he was Deputy for Military Space in the office of the Undersecretary of the Air Force. He was the National Space Club’s Astronautics Engineer of the Year, was selected as one of Space News ‘“100 Who Made a Difference” and is a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and the National Reconnaissance Office’s Technical Advisory Group.

Dr. Jeff Puschell
Dr. Jeff Puschell is Principal Engineering Fellow and Chief Scientist, Space Systems at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in El Segundo, California. He is an internationally recognized expert in the system engineering of space-based imaging and remote sensing systems. He has >31 years of experience in developing advanced technology infrared and visible wavelength systems for a variety of operational and research applications. His experience is broadly based and includes leading and making major contributions toward development of visible-infrared instruments for space-based operational environmental remote sensing, development and field testing of laser-based communication and remote sensing systems and building and using millimeter, infrared, visible and ultraviolet wavelength instrumentation for ground-based astronomy. Dr. Puschell has authored or co-authored >120 papers on a variety of topics in astrophysics, imaging, remote sensing and optical communication. He holds several patents for innovative passive and active remote sensors. He participates actively in technical societies such as the SPIE including the Nanotechnology and Thermosense Technical Groups and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) including the Space Systems and Sensor Systems Technical Committees. He chaired the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee in 2009-2010. He chairs the Industrial Advisory Board for the Center for Metamaterials headquartered at City University of New York and he is a member of the US Department of Commerce Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing and Chair for the SPIE Remote Sensing System Engineering Conference. He is a member of the Visiting Committee for the Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago. Dr. Puschell received an A.B. (with Honors) degree in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Minnesota in 1979. He is a SPIE Fellow and an Associate Fellow of the AIAA.