Dr. Obed Scott Sands is a communication systems analyst at the Communication System Integration Research Branch of the Communications Division at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Sands has over 20 years of experience in the area of communications radar and sonar systems analysis. He has supported a variety of efforts in the area of space communications.

Dr. Sands earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Ohio State University. He has been involved in the development of laboratory testing of phased-array antennas with a focus on beam-switch transients and time spreading associated with wide-angle scanning. In addition, Dr. Sands has developed communications systems concepts for the Beacon lunar infrastructure, interplanetary communication relay networks, and Earth science remote-sensing applications.

Early in his career, Dr. Sands performed system-level analysis, integration, and testing for the B1–B Offensive Radar System. Later, he was involved in research to develop systems for radar target identification, which were further developed and tested with active sonar.