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Robert D. Briskman (born October 15, 1932) is Technical Executive of
Sirius XM Radio
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...
.
He was the Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Engineering of
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Sirius ...
since its founding in 1991.
Briskman has been involved with communication satellite systems since their inception. Briskman, the technical innovator of mobile satellite radio services, was responsible for the development, implementation and operation of Sirius Satellite Radio's broadcast distribution system. His technology development responsibility included design of low cost satellite receiving terminals for automobiles and of broadcast sound programming, earth station, terrestrial repeaters and satellite control facilities.
During 2000, Briskman launched three Sirius satellites into a unique operational orbital constellation which he designed. The mobile subscriber radios use his patented space and time diversity technology.
In 2014, he became a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
for achievements in satellite communications, culminating in Sirius XM Radio.
Early life and education
Briskman graduated from
Poly Prep Country Day School
Poly Prep Country Day School (commonly known as Poly Prep) is an independent, co-educational day school with two campuses in Brooklyn, New York, United States. The Middle School (5th to 8th grades) and Upper School (9th to 12th grades) are loc ...
in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
in 1950. Briskman holds a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
E. degree from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and a
M.S.E.E. degree from the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
which, in 2007, gave him its Technology Business Leadership Award.
Career
Sirius XM Radio
Along with co-founder
David Margolese
David Margolese (born October 24, 1957) is an Israeli entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder of Sirius XM Radio, serving as chairman and CEO from 1993 to 2002.Michael Wolff"Cruise Control,"''New York'', September 25, 2000, pp. 30-32. Conside ...
, Briskman oversaw the development of the custom satellites, receivers and other technologies to bring satellite radio to consumers.
[Nancy Dillon]
“Beaming Radio Into High-Tech Fast Lane,”
''New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', June 5, 2000.
Geostar
Prior to Sirius XM Radio, Briskman was with the Geostar Corporation from 1986-1990. He was responsible at Geostar for the development, design, implementation and operation of the Radio Determination Satellite Service provided by Geostar, which allowed positioning and message
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
between mobile users nationwide and their dispatch centers. Briskman directed the construction of Geostar's space segment, the control and operations center and the development of the mobile terminals used on land, sea and airborne vehicles built by the
SONY
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar. It is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland and provides satellite internet service. HughesNet has over 1.3 million subscribers in the Americas.
History
Hughes Communication ...
and
Kenwood Corporation
is a Japanese brand of consumer electronics. It has been owned by JVCKenwood ever since October 2011, when Kenwood Corporation merged with JVC. Kenwood manufactures audio equipment such as cassette tape decks/recorders, amateur radio (ham) equ ...
s. He was responsible for the development of a miniaturized handheld transceiver by Motorola, which was the world's smallest satellite earth terminal. Briskman served as Senior Vice President, Engineering.
COMSAT
Briskman was employed by the
Communications Satellite Corporation
COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corporation) is a global telecommunications company based in the United States.
By 2007, it had branches in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and several other countries in the Americas. A ...
(COMSAT) in January 1964, and was responsible initially for satellite command and control activities, including those involved with the launching of
Intelsat I
Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm") was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965. It was built by the Space and Communications Group of H ...
(Early Bird). He was later a Department Manager in the Transmission Systems Division, where he was involved with the development and implementation of the
Intelsat
Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...
global communications system. Among his efforts, early work in demand assigned single carrier per channel, radio frequency interference minimization and terrestrial interconnection was accomplished. Briskman was responsible from 1967-1973 for the technical planning involved with the provision of domestic communications services via satellites, including AT&T's satellite systems.
Briskman joined COMSAT General Corporation on its founding in 1973 and was Assistant Vice President, Space and Information Systems. He was responsible for the
Comstar satellite system, the development of Earth resource and information systems, and the implementation of the first remote satellite data collection system in conjunction with the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
Geological Survey and
Telesat
Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa.
History
Telesat began as Telesat Canada, a Canadian Crown corporation created by an Act of Parli ...
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. He directed the construction of the Southbury and Santa Paula earth stations which were used for command and control of both
Marisat Marisat satellites were the first maritime telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S. Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean reg ...
and Comstar satellites and for shore communications to the Atlantic and Pacific Marisat satellites. Briskman joined Satellite Business Systems in mid-1977 where he was responsible for the Pre-Operational Program which provided voice and data communications services to many
IBM facilities in the United States using the first demand-assigned, time division multiple access system ever placed in commercial operations.
Briskman returned to COMSAT General in 1980 where he was responsible as Vice President, Systems Implementation for the engineering of satellites, earth stations and communications technical facilities of COMSAT General and of clients, both within and external to COMSAT. His organization provided a complete range of technical services nationally and internationally, including those involved with software, spectrum engineering and teleconferencing. Briskman was responsible for Indonesia's domestic satellite system
Palapa
Palapa is a series of Communications satellites owned by Indosat, an Indonesian telecommunications company (formerly by Perumtel and then by PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia/Satelindo). Starting with the first in July 1976, at which time Indones ...
, Mexico's
Morelos
Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...
,
Arabsat
The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...
, and Italsat programs, as well as for providing support to the Inmarsat, Intelsat, STC (Direct broadcast), Telstar-3, Alascom, Satcol, Unisat, Intelmet, Nordsat, Chinasat, and Cameroon programs.
NASA
Prior to COMSAT, Briskman joined the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...
(
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
) during its founding in 1959. At NASA, Briskman was Chief of Program Support for the Office of Tracking and Data Acquisition. He was involved with the development of ground instrumentation for such projects as
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
,
Gemini
Gemini may refer to:
Space
* Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac
** Gemini in Chinese astronomy
* Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program
* Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Northern ...
,
Ranger
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
,
Mariner
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
, and
Echo
In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...
. Briskman received the Apollo Achievement Award from NASA for the design and implementation of the
Unified S-Band System. Before NASA, he was employed by IBM in 1954 and worked on the design of the first asynchronous buffer system. After two years of military service as an Electronic Countermeasures Analyst Officer, for which he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Briskman was employed by the Army Security Agency. He was engaged in communications systems development and analysis.
Board memberships
Briskman is a Fellow and past Secretary-Treasurer, Vice President for Technical Activities and Director of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
(IEEE) which gave him the 2008 IEEE AESS Pioneer Award for communications satellite development. He has been
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of the Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society, Director of the National Telecommunications Conference, Chairman of the EASCON Board of Directors, and Chairman of the IEEE Standards Board.
In 2008 Briskman joined the Board of Directors of GenMobi Technologies, a Silicon Valley company that developed anti-fraud applications including Check-Mates and Authidex.
Briskman has authored over fifty technical papers, holds many United States and foreign patents, served on the Industry Advisory Council to NASA, and is a licensed professional engineer. He is a Fellow of the
AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...
, which gave him its 2007 Aerospace Communications Award, and the Washington Academy of Science, past President of the Washington Society of Engineers, and a member of IAA,
AFCEA
Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association International (AFCEA), established in 1946, is a nonprofit membership association serving the military, government, industry, and academia as a forum for advancing professional knowledge and re ...
and the Old Crows. Briskman has been the Consulting Editor,
Telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
for the
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology
The ''McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology'' is an English-language multivolume encyclopedia, specifically focused on scientific and technical subjects, and published by McGraw-Hill Education. The most recent edition in print is the el ...
over the past decade.
Honors and awards
He is a recipient of the
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
Centennial Medal and has been inducted into the
Society of Satellite Professionals International
The Society of Satellite Professionals International or SSPI is a nonprofit organization, made up of members who worked as professionals in the satellite industry throughout their careers. Its headquarters are in New York City, United States.
In ...
(SSPI) Hall of Fame and into the Space Technology Hall of Fame by the
Space Foundation
The Space Foundation is an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to advocate for all sectors of the global space industry through space awareness activities, educational programs, and major industry events. It was founded in 1983.
Loca ...
. He was also elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
(2014).
References
External links
SIRIUS XMAES Society Pioneer AwardRobert Briskman, SIRIUS Satellite Radio's Co-Founder, Awarded the * [2007 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Communications AwardRobert Briskman '54 receives award for founding Sirius radioAlumnus and Sirius Satellite Radio Co-Founder Receives AIAA Award* [http://www.genmobi.com GenMobi Technologies]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Briskman, Robert
1932 births
American radio company founders
Living people
Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
Sirius Satellite Radio
People from Brooklyn
20th-century American engineers
American electrical engineers
20th-century American Jews
Businesspeople from New York City
IEEE Centennial Medal laureates
Engineers from New York City
Poly Prep alumni
Sirius XM
21st-century American Jews