Robert Been received the MSc degree in Applied Mathematics from Delft University of Technology in 1990. He then worked for the Underwater Technology Department of TNO Defence, Security and

Safety, where he was the Program Manager for Low Frequency Active Sonar research until 1998.

From 1998 to 2006, he was a Senior Engineer in the Advanced Sonar Studies Department of Thales Underwater Systems in Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2006, he joined NATO STO CMRE, a research centre in La Spezia, Italy. Robert Been is a principal scientist and the ASW department head at NATO-CMRE. He leads a multidisciplinary team working on the development and at-sea testing of advanced autonomous unmanned systems that comprise cognitive sonar components and advanced algorithms to tackle the challenging field of ASW. The team also supports NATO ASW exercises with

operational research and data analysis expertise.