Robert Marley

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Dr. Robert Marley is the Robert B. Koplar Professor of Engineering Management at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T). He has extensive experience in serving higher education, 36 years overall with 23 of these in a variety of leadership roles. These include two engineering deanships, a vice presidency in student success, and as provost. Areas in which he held specific leadership responsibility for include faculty and student affairs, college and support programs, research and sponsored programs, technology transfer, distance and on-line programs, libraries, enrollment management, registrar, financial aid, and even briefly DI athletics.

Marley began his professional career as a rehabilitation engineering technician helping design adaptive technologies for disabled adults. In 1990 he joined the faculty of Montana State University (MSU) in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department. He went on to hold positions of Associate Dean, and Dean of the College of Engineering, and later as Interim Vice President of Student Success. Marley then joined Missouri S&T in Rolla where he served five years as the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, before returning to faculty as the Koplar Professor. Recently, he worked internationally helping to establish a new engineering college in Kuwait’s first private university, the Gulf University for Science and Technology.

Throughout his varied leadership roles, Marley built a strong record of enhancing student and faculty success, facilitating prestigious national and international awards, increasing enrollment and retention, promoting research growth, increasing faculty and student diversity, and securing significant external funding. He has helped garner approximately $115 Million in private, State and Federal support for professorships, scholarships, programs and facilities. His efforts on behalf of both Montana State and S&T helped lead to enhanced profiles for both institutions, including the ascent of MSU to the R1 Carnegie classification in 2006, as well as laying groundwork for S&T’s anticipated R1 reclassification in 2025.

In his faculty role, Marley pursued research questions in ergonomics and human factors engineering related work-related cumulative trauma injury and performance. Recently, he is also examining leadership development issues in complex organizations. He has authored over 100 publications with impact in the ergonomics, engineering and safety related disciplines, and has several citations in key Federal compendiums in these areas.

Marley has received local and national awards as a faculty mentor and in 2022 was awarded Fellow status in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Earlier in his career, Marley was selected as a Fellow in the prestigious American Council on Education (ACE) Program serving at Texas A&M University. Among other activities, he studied relationships between flagship public research universities and other state campuses operating in a mission-diverse system.

Marley holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Wichita State University, where he was awarded the University’s highly selective Boeing Fellowship. His Bachelors and Masters degrees are also from Wichita State. He and his wife, Margaret Maben, who holds a BS in Microbiology from MSU, reside in Rolla, Missouri, where they enjoy many outdoor activities together.