Dr. Benjamin A. Pontano is currently President of COMSAT Laboratories, the research and development division of COMSAT Corporation. He has worked in the field of satellite communications for more than 25 years. Dr. Pontano was also with INTELSAT for 10 years where he was responsible for communications engineering. He received his undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Pennsylvania State University.