Leadership
Annette Sobel, M.D.
CEO and Co-Owner focused on national security, medicine in extreme environments, and public-sector technical leadership.
BSI Team
Scientific And Engineering Staff
The old staff page had strong raw material but weak structure. This version turns it into a readable team overview so visitors can understand who covers which technical ground.
Operating Principle
BSI starts from the physics of the measurement, then designs the sensor, workflow, and support stack around the real constraint instead of forcing the problem into a legacy template.
Team Overview
The People Behind The Work
Introducing our esteemed team of talented scientists and physicists at BlankSlate Innovation! With their innovative mindset and expertise, they are dedicated to creating and providing groundbreaking solutions for research. Dr. Robert Duncan, a distinguished Ph.D., leads the way with his exceptional knowledge and experience. Next, we have the accomplished Dr. Annette Sobel, whose remarkable career in national security and medical advancements has made a significant impact. Joining them is Dr. Shelby Lacouture, a brilliant Senior Scientist specializing in emerging energy sciences. Last but not least, we have the esteemed Dr. Andrew Gillespie. At Blank Slate Innovation, we are committed to advancing science one project at a time. Reach out to us and let's embark on a journey of limitless possibilities.
Research Leadership
Robert Duncan, Ph.D.
Co-Owner supporting sensing systems, research commercialization, and experiment architecture.
Engineering
Shelby Lacouture, Ph.D.
Scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, and embedded systems builder with pulsed-power and metrology depth.
Physics
Andrew Gillespie, Ph.D.
Physicist and modeler spanning MCNP, instrument science, adsorption, heat transport, and mass spectrometry.
Electronics
Mitchell Kelley, Ph.D.
Power electronics and experimental systems contributor with strong build-and-test laboratory grounding.
Fabrication
Cuikun Lin, Ph.D.
Nanofabrication, instrument development, automation, and high-output academic research profile.
Team Shape
What The Legacy Staff Page Got Right
BSI consists of a close team of very innovative professionals, and occasionally we add additional people to BSI. Please contact us if you are interested in joining our team.
What Stands Out
The important signal is that the team is not one-dimensional. The backgrounds span medicine, physics, electrical engineering, instrumentation, commercialization, and applied operations.
Implication
Why That Matters
- Problems can be framed from multiple technical angles before committing to a design path
- Research-grade work does not get disconnected from build and delivery realities
- Programs with unusual constraints can be discussed with people who understand edge cases
- The team can move between scientific rigor and practical deployment tradeoffs
Next Step
Need a specific expertise match?
If the problem is unusual, say that early. The fastest way to waste time is pretending a hard edge case is a standard procurement request.