Bob Kaplar received a B.S. degree in Physics from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University, Columbus. He joined Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, in 2002 as a post-doctoral researcher, was subsequently a member of the technical staff, and is now manager of the Semiconductor Material and Device Sciences department at Sandia. His research is focused on wide- and ultra-wide-bandgap III-Nitride materials and devices for power conversion applications. Within the EFRC, he will focus on the physics of high-field transport and breakdown, as well as a co-design framework through which the impact of UWBG materials properties on power conversion systems for the electric grid will be ascertained.