Dr. J. Marcos Sirota is a co-founder, president and CEO of Sigma Space Corp. He has been working on optical instrumentation and lidar systems for aerospace applications for over 25 years. Sigma produces state-of-art lidar instruments for ground, airborne and spaceborne platforms, including cloud physics, aerosols, wind and topographic measurement systems. Various commercial products, including Micro Pulse Lidar for atmospheric monitoring, and Single Photon Lidars for topographic mapping are used worldwide. Previous positions included postdoctoral appointments at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, research appointments at the National Research Council of Argentina, and a research professorship at the University of Maryland.

Marcos earned his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1990 from the University of Washington, a master's from that university in 1984, and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the Universtiy of Buenos Aires in 1981. He is author or co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in various fields.