Dakota Roberson

Dakota Roberson, Ph.D., began as a DARPA program manager in the Strategic Technology Office in October 2025.

At DARPA, he is interested in developing and scaling technologies to defend the homeland from irregular warfare attacks and provide warfighters with energy support at the operational and tactical edge. His expertise spans power system stability and dynamics, critical infrastructure security, high-performance frequency-domain control, and statistical signal processing.

Throughout his career, Roberson has served in numerous roles across government, academia, and industry. He was previously a distinguished scientist and lead engineer at the Idaho National Laboratory, where he focused on advanced energy systems and national security applications. Prior to that, he served as associate professor of electrical & computer engineering at the University of Idaho, where he was affiliated with the nuclear engineering department .

Roberson has held several government advisory positions. He served as a White House Fellow and has been both a member of and government task force advisor to the Defense Science Board. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as a senior technical advisor to the U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist. Earlier in his career, he worked with Sandia National Laboratories and served as an engineering designer and consultant for private-sector companies.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Roberson races motocross and can be found painting or playing electric guitar in the winter months.

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Wyoming 
  Minor in Statistics
• B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Wyoming
  Minor in Mathematics