Dr. Kris Zacny is Vice President & Director of Exploration Technology at Honeybee Robotics. He focuses on robotic terrestrial and extraterrestrial drilling, excavation and geotechnical systems, as well as sample acquisition, transfer and processing technologies. In his previous capacity as an engineer in the South African mines, Dr. Zacny managed numerous mining projects and underground production. Zacny received a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Cape Town, an ME in Petroleum Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph. D. from the University of California, Berkeley in Mars drilling. Dr. Zacny has over 100 publications, including an edited book, “Drilling in Extreme Environments: Penetration and Sampling on Earth and Other Planets.” He has been a Principal Investigator and a Co-Investigator of over 50 NASA and Department of Defense funded projects and participated in several drilling expeditions in Antarctica, the Atacama Desert, Mauna Kea, the Mojave Desert and the Arctic.

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