Pablo Sobron

Research Scientist,
Founder and CEO of Impossible Sensing

Biography

Pablo Sobron is a Research Scientist at the SETI Institute, the Founder and CEO of Impossible Sensing, and a world expert in spectroscopy. He has invented sensors to explore the solar system and the deep sea and commercialized spin-off solutions in energy, agriculture, and critical minerals markets.

After retiring from international basketball in 2005, Pablo got his PhD in physics in 2008 and worked through an alphabet of space organizations, NASA, CSA, and SETI among others. His work in planetary science has won many awards, including NASA GAAs, the highest level of peer-nominated awards given to NASA teams, and the inaugural SETI Institute Carl Sagan Center’s Director Award.

In 2016 Pablo set up Impossible Sensing to crack impossible problems in space and industry. His approach: look where others don’t. The breakthroughs followed. Success bred success: technology firsts in energy, ocean, and agriculture led to three more startups—all speeding the green transition. Bold innovations followed. More industry awards, too.

Today Pablo leads a team turning space-proven sensing into climate tech, delivering in weeks what takes others years.

Topics

✓ Habitability

✓ Astrobiology

✓ Planetary Exploration

Languages Spoken

✓ English

✓ Spanish - Español

Qualifications

Over 20 years of experience in robotic Earth and Planetary exploration. He’s led and participated in 20+ campaigns to demonstrate new technologies in extreme environments in the Arctic and Antarctic; high-elevation deserts in the Andes and Tibet; volcanic, hydrothermal fields, and mine sites around the world; and deep-sea and seamounts and volcanic calderas.
He led the design and development of InVADER, the first subsea observatory that can map habitats and minerals on the fly. Using Raman and Fluorescence, it can cover large extensions of the seafloor much faster than traditional ship-based methods.
World (and planetary) class expertise developing spectroscopic technologies for Earth and planetary use cases, including developing and operating all Raman, fluorescence, and LIBS instruments ever used on Mars: ChemCam, SuperCam, Sherloc, and RLS.

He has managed over $12 million in NASA awards as PI of NASA’s MFRP, PSTAR, MatISSE, and SBIR Programs.
And over $10 million in other federal government and industry contracts.
He earned his Ph.D. in Physics and Vibrational Spectroscopy and Materials Technology from the University of Valladolid, Spain, and the University of Oslo, Norway, in 2008. He holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Materials Technology from the University of Valladolid, Spain, received in 2005, and a combined Bachelor’s and Master’s in Physics from the same university, completed in 2003.
He then carried out R&D at space agencies worldwide (Center for Astrobiology/INTA, Spain, Canadian Space Agency, Canada, European Space Agency, Netherlands); as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, US, McGill University, Canada; and as founder and co-founder of four startups in US and Canada.
Publications & Patents: over 100 in total.