Dr. Annette Sobel is a former Major General in the Arizona Air National Guard, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Education, and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.
Currently, she is the Director of Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM), at Texas Tech University. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Executive for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Health Security Initiatives, at TTU. She is residency trained in Family and Community Medicine and Aerospace Medicine and is a Hyperbaric Medicine Specialist, certified by the U.S. Navy. As a physician-human factors engineer, she worked at Sandia National Laboratories as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff and was a guest scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She was a senior advisor to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Dr. Sobel also served as Senior Advisor for Biosecurity Engagement in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Program. Presently, she is Chair of the Permanent Monitoring Panel for mitigation of acts of terrorism of the World Federation of Scientists, and is a Commissioner on the Governor Greg Abbott's Texas Military Preparedness Commission.
Dr. Sobel’s research focuses on integration of human factors principles into a wide range of systems engineering platforms to include synthetic aperture radar systems for advanced tactical fighters, virtual reality and robotic training platforms, unmanned aircraft systems, decision-assisting algorithms for emerging infectious disease response and medical diagnostics for pre-hospital care.