Tuesday, October 14, 2025

30 Years of Robots and Humans to the Rescue

Dr. Robin Murphy

Professor Emeritus
Computer Science and Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Dr. Robin Murphy is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, a founding director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue and an AAAS, ACM, and IEEE Fellow. She helped create the fields of disaster robotics and human-robot interaction, deploying robots to more than 30 disasters in five countries, including the 9/11 World Trade Center, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, Hurricanes Harvey, Ian and Helene.

Dr. Murphy’s contributions to robotics have been recognized with the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions, a US Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Award medal, the AUVSI Foundation’s Al Aube Award and the Motohiro Kisoi Award for Rescue Engineering Education (Japan). She is also a TED speaker and one the 30 Most Innovative Women Professors Alive Today.  She has more than 200 publications, including the award-winning Disaster Robotics (MIT Press 2014). She serves on the editorial board of the journal Science Robotics and writes the science fiction/science fact focus column.