Jeff Trinkle received his bachelor's degrees in Physics (1979) and Engineering Science and Mechanics (1979) from Ursinus College and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. In 1987, he received his PhD from the Department of Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a research assistant in the GRASP Laboratory. Since 1987, he has held faculty positions in the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering at the University of Arizona and the Department of Computer Science at Texas A&M University. From 1998 to 2003 he was a research scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque New Mexico. He is now Professor of Computer Science at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he served as Department Chair from 2003 to 2009. His primary research interests are in the areas of robotic manipulation, multibody dynamics, and automated manufacturing.