Robert Koester

Robert J. Koester first joined the Appalachian Search & Rescue Conference (Blue Ridge Mountain Group) in 1981 and since then has participated in hundreds of searches, including over a hundred as Incident Commander. He has managed a wide range of search incidents including multi-day, multi-division complex incidents. Currently he is a Search Mission Coordinator with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). He holds a PhD. from the University of Portsmouth in search theory and a MS and BA from the University of Virginia (neuroscience).

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Institute of Search and Technical Rescue, and has been granted the Lisa Hannon award. His contributions to search and rescue include seminal research on search theory and lost person behavior along with creating the International Search and Rescue Incident Database (ISRID). He conducted early research into the dementia profile. He is an instructor for VDEM since 1988 and past-president (15 years) of the Virginia Search and Rescue Council, Robert has also worked for the USCG (conducting visual sweep width experiments), NASA (conducting missing aircraft radar research), NPS (responding to major searches and writing the draft NPS SAR Field Manual), FEMA (as an instructor and disaster reservist), USAF (Agent Based Modeling), and SAR Institute of New Zealand (conducting sound and light sweep width experiments).

Robert also developed courses for DCJS and was a Cardiac Technician for twelve years with the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad. He has developed SAR software called FIND, FIND Mobile (for POD), and the LPB App for the US DHS Science & Technology directorate. He recently researched survivability algorithms, impact of weather of subject behavior, cell phone forensics integration into probability models, probability of detection for sUAV sensors, correction factors for probability of detection, and new subject categories. He is the CEO of dbS Productions which provides research, software & publications, and training services. He is also a visiting researcher at the University of Portsmouth and enjoys mentoring graduate students.  Robert has authored dozens of books and research articles on search and rescue, including Lost Person Behavior, Endangered & Vulnerable Adults and Children, ICS FOGSAR, Fatigue, Incident Commander – Ground and is widely cited. He is currently a co-editor of the Journal of Search & Rescue.

He has presented in Aruba, Australia, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Malaysia, Poland, Sweden, and Taiwan and widely throughout Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. His Lost Person Behavior course has been taught on all seven continents. In addition, he has been interviewed by NPR, NBC News, Wired, Washington Post, Scientific American, Outside Magazine, Backpacker, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, CBC, several book authors and others.