Engineer, scientist, and teacher, Dr. Robert Showen attended San Jose State University, University of California at Berkeley, and Rice University, obtaining degrees in electrical engineering and space physics, before winning a fellowship to the Max Planck Institute. He has taught astronomy and physics at the University of Puerto Rico, performed experiments to heat the ionosphere at the world’s largest RADAR, participated in the development of over-the-horizon RADAR at SRI International, and studied the effects of lightning on the ionosphere. With over three decades of acoustic and geophysics research experience, it was Dr. Showen’s initial vision of helping police curb gunfire and urban crime which caused him first to conceive of ShotSpotter. Dr. Showen is a company founder and patent holder on the technology.