Dr. Robert Dahlgren is a Scientist at the Carl Sagan Center for study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Robert was awarded his doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 2011, after studying the optimization of high-speed polymer optical fiber links. As a graduate student and post-graduate researcher at the Baskin School of Engineering Photonics Group, he brought a multi-disciplinary background to the SSRC from 2004–2011. His research interests include the physics and characterization of optical data storage, measurement science, optical devices, and particularly the physics and reduction to practice of optical sensors.