Carnegie Mellon University

Herman Herman

Dr. Herman Herman, Director of the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC).

Dr. Herman Herman

Director, NREC

Dr. Herman Herman is the Director of NREC and has over 25 years of experience in developing robotic vehicles, sensors and electronics for defense, agriculture, mining and other markets. His expertise include perception, sensor design and integration, robotic system design and integration, autonomy, communications, user interfaces, hardware, electronics and test bed design. Dr. Herman has been with NREC since its inauguration in 1996 and became the Director in 2015. 

Dr. Herman holds a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dimitrios Apostolopoulos

Dr. Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, Program Director of the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC)

Dr. Dimitrios Apostolopoulos

Program Director, NREC 

Senior Systems Scientist, Robotics Institute 

Dr. Dimitrios (Dimi) Apostolopoulos joined NREC in 2001 where his research over the past 25 years focuses on using robotics for discovery and exploration, and as a workforce for hazardous situations, inhospitable environments and in demanding applications. His expertise covers robotic mobility, mechanisms, robot configuration and design, mechatronics, mechanics, dynamics and control. 

Dr. Apostolopoulos holds a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and serves as Chair for the Master of Science in Robotics (MSR) Program at CMU’s Robotics Institute.

Jeff Legault

Jeff Legault, Associate Director, NREC

Jeff Legault 

Associate Director, NREC 

Mr. Legault is the Associate Director at NREC. He oversees several departments and activities including business development, marketing, recruiting, project financial tracking, and contracts negotiation. Internally, Mr. Legault works with the support and technical staff to improve processes and operations, and position the organization for its continuous growth. Additionally, he works closely with commercial and government clients to identify problems operational needs that can be addressed with NREC robotics expertise and technology. Also, under Mr. Legault’s leadership, dedicated business development staff creates and manages new client relationships. They pursue new markets and applications that could benefit from robotics and create marketing communications programs to build awareness of the NREC brand.

Mr. Legault joined NREC in 2007 and holds a M.Sc. in Physics from Sherbrook University, Canada.