Robert Schmidle is the University Advisor on Cyber Capabilities and Conflict Studies and a U.S. Marine veteran with expertise in moral and social philosophy and military history.

Schmidle is also a Professor of Practice in the School of Politics and Global Studies. Additionally, he is a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Future of War.

While on active duty he served as the first Deputy Commander of United States Cyber Command, responsible for standing up the command while concurrently executing full-spectrum cyber operations. Subsequently, he was the head of Marine Aviation and his final assignment on active duty was as the Principal Deputy Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

General Schmidle has extensive operational flying experience, amassing nearly 4,700 hours in tactical fighters, and participating in combat operations in Iraqi and Bosnia.