Robert D. Briskman (born October 15, 1932) is Technical Executive of

Sirius XM Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger ...

. He was the Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Engineering of

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

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 organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

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 ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in 1950. Briskman holds a B.S. E. degree from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

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, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

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 businessman best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Sirius XM,Michael Wolff"Cruise Control,"'' New York'', September 25, 2000, pp. 30-32. the world’s largest radio company. Considere ...

, 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 ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'', 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 is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

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 is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Hughes Network Systems Hughes Network Systems, LLC is an American telecommunications company that specializes in providing satellite-based communication services for consumer and enterprise markets. It is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland and provides satellite i ...

and

Kenwood Corporation is a Japanese brand of consumer electronics. Since October 2008, Kenwood has been owned by JVCKenwood as a result of a merger between Kenwood Corporation and JVC. Kenwood has manufactured electronic equipment such as AM/FM stereo receivers, ...

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 Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) 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. Alt ...

(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 ...

(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) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Geological Survey and

Telesat Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company (law), company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa. History Founding and privatization (1969-2005) Telesat began in 1969 as Telesat C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 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 mobile 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 r ...

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 International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

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 Telkom Indonesia, Perumtel and then by PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia/Satelindo). The first satellite was launched in July 197 ...

, Mexico's

Morelos Morelos, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Mun ...

, Arabsat, 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 United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

) 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 is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

, Gemini, Ranger,

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. While the term ''sailor' ...

, 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 lis ...

. 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 an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

(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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

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 and the Old Crows. Briskman has been the Consulting Editor,

Telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology over the past decade.

Honors and awards

He is a recipient of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

Centennial Medal and has been inducted into the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) Hall of Fame and into the Space Technology Hall of Fame by the

Space Foundation The Space Foundation is an American nonprofit organization, the mission of which 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 ...

. He was also elected a member of the

(2014).

References

External links

SIRIUS XM

AES Society Pioneer Award

Robert Briskman, SIRIUS Satellite Radio's Co-Founder, Awarded the * [2007 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Communications Award

Robert Briskman '54 receives award for founding Sirius radio

Alumnus 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 Mass media 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