Robert oversees the entire biosafety program at the Wyss Institute. His work includes making full biosafety risk assessments of all Institute projects involving human and animal biologicals, and recombinant and synthetic genetic material; he also ensures the experiments will be done in compliance with NIH guidelines, OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard, and all state and local regulations. Robert serves as the liaison between the Wyss Institute and the Committee on Microbiological Safety (COMS), Harvard University’s Institutional Biosafety Committee that oversees research at the Wyss Institute; Robert also provides risk evaluation and guidance for COMS protocol submission by Wyss Institute Investigators. As biosafety officer, Robert also provides project-appropriate group and individual biosafety training to Wyss researchers. Before coming to the Wyss in 2016, Robert was a biosafety officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for three years. Prior to entering the field of biosafety, Robert was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and AIDS vaccine researcher at Dana-Farber, working both as a senior investigator and project leader, as well as performing experiments. Rob received his B.S. from Stony Brook University and his Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.