Erik Bard is the principal investigator in the Skinwalker ranch. He specializes in the high-tech technology at the ranch headquarters.Erik Bard career started after he graduated as a physicist from BYU. According to Erik Bard, Commercial products and IP have come out of his work in electrophotography, consumer electronics, X-ray analytical instruments (X-ray sources, detectors and other components) and the development of archival optical data storage (the “M-disc”). He has adapted, designed, constructed and/or coded various tools in service to his work, including optical instruments, interferometric devices, manufacturing equipment, multi-physics data-logging devices and laboratory test automation systems. He is also currently a partner in a scientific instruments components development company.