Robert Bitmead holds the Cymer Corporation Endowed Chair in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. His research concentrates on System Identification, Modeling, Control Design, Signal Processing and Telecommunications. He has an active interest in both theory and applications. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Australian Academy of Technolgical Sciences and Engineering.

He gained his Bachelors degree in Applied Mathematics from Sydney University and his Masters and PhD (1980) in Electrical Engineering from Newcastle University, Australia. His consulting activities have included Australian Sugar, Steel and Mining and US Aerospace, Transport and Telecommunciations.