Dr. Mircea Badescu is a Technologist at the NDEAA lab of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He joined JPL in February 2005 after serving as a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar for a year. He received the Ph.D. degree in robotics in mechanical and aerospace engineering, from Rutgers University, in 2003. Prior to graduate school he worked for the Romanian Navy on the design of underwater diving equipment. He has experience on design integration of power ultrasonic piezoelectric devices, planetary and low gravity sampling systems, extreme environments devices, instruments for planetary exploration, optical components for telescopes, and optimal design of self-reconfigurable robots using parallel platforms as modules. He has experience in organizing and conducting field tests including glaciers, Antarctica, and desert. He has expertise on designing haptic devices for vehicular instruments control and automotive smart clutches. He is coauthor of 93 publications, 11 patents, 57 NTRs, and recipient of 39 NASA tech brief and other awards.