John E. Hoot is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BS in Computer Engineering. He is the founder and retired CEO of a business that specializes in embedded systems and instrumentation development. John is currently an observational astronomer, operating four robotic observatories on two continents, doing astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy. He is the designer of several commercial astronomical CCD cameras, autoguiders, telescope controls, weather satellite telemetry decoders and image processing products. In addition to his other activities, John provides instrumentation engineering and training services to Mount Wilson Institute and is the member of several professional organizations.