Robert S. Tripp is a senior management scientist at the RAND Corporation. He has more than 35 years of experience in the areas of military logistics systems design, development, management, and evaluation. At RAND, Tripp has led research projects for the Air Force, Army, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, and Combatant Commands that have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of alternative support postures, several of which have led to changes in support system designs. He is currently engaged in projects that evaluate how support policy, practice, and technology options impact the effectiveness and efficiency of Air and Space Forces. In industry, Tripp has held corporate officer positions, supervising business development activities and managing several logistics information system development projects.
During his Air Force career, Tripp held several logistics positions, including program manager for two large logistics information systems that are still in use today. He has numerous refereed publications in the fields of logistics and information systems. He has also served as an ad hoc logistics advisor to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in logistics, production management, management sciences, and management information systems at the Air Force Institute of Technology, the University of New Mexico, and Michigan Technological University, and he chaired the Management Sciences and Management Information Systems Group at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. Tripp received his Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Minnesota.