Dr. Richard Satava is a surgeon and researcher who is currently a Professor Emeritus of Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center, a former Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) program manager, and former Senior Science Advisor at the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in Ft. Detrick, Maryland. A two-time Smithsonian Laureate in Healthcare, Dr. Satava has participated in cutting-edge technological research and was the surgeon on the teams that developed the first surgical robot and the first virtual reality surgical simulators. He has also served on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Committee on Health, Food and Safety and currently serves on a number of surgical and engineering societies, as well as the editorial boards of numerous surgical and scientific journals. Dr. Satava has contributed to over 200 publications relating to surgical technology.