Robert obtained his B.A. in French through part-time study during a long career as an engineering professor at Virginia Tech. Retired, he spent the last two years pursuing his M.A. He spent sabbaticals and summers in France cycling around and teaching at various French engineering schools, including a year in Paris as a visiting scientist at the Office nationale d’études et de recherches aérospatiales while studying French literature as an auditeur libre at the Sorbonne. He spent two years as professor and Directeur des études at Georgia Tech’s campus in Metz, after which he lived in France for an additional four years. Robert is a dix-neuvièmiste convaincu whose M.A. thesis is entitled L’Observation thermodynamique chez les écrivains naturalistes.