| 1973 | RBR founded Frank Johnson receives PhD in neurophysiology Greg Johnson born. Richard Brancker founded Richard Brancker Research Ltd |
| 1976 | Kara Johnson (Golota) born. RBR Ltd started active operation. |
| 1973-1985 | Frank works with medical engineering in hospitals, medical schools and private industry in the UK |
| 1986 | Frank joins RBR and develops first range of oceanographic instruments; the TL-100 and XL series of data loggers dates from this era |
| 1989 | Frank re-establishes connection to medical engineering at the Ottawa Heart Institute and meets Zbiginiew Szurmak, John Miller and Jerry Molnar Mohinder Singh Gida joins RBR |
| 1990 | Gabrielle Pell leaves RBR to study industrial design |
| 1991 | Ottawa Instrumentation Limited (OIL) founded with Zbigniew Szurmak and David Gibbons as partners |
| 1998 | OIL takes over RBR. Frank, Zbigniew and David produce second generation of oceanographic instruments |
| 2000 | Bart Geleynse joins RBR as Marketing Director. |
| 2003 | Robert Brehm joins RBR as Managing Director of RBR Europe GmbH |
| 2004 | Sumatra-Andaman earthquake tsunami hits the coast of Tamil-Nadu |
| 2005 | Support offered to fishing village in Chinnakuppam, 100km south of Chennai where RBR representatives Electrotek and Results Marine have offices |
| 2007 | Irene’s Pub bought by RBR and developed as a focus for live music. FWRI purchased in Lanark County. |
| 2008 | Greg joins RBR full time SpectraSense formed with Bart Geleynse, Robert Brehm and Mohinder Singh Phil Gibbs joins RBR as Managing Director of RBR Europe (UK) |
| 2010 | Workshop moved to new premises Kara and Alex Golota take over Irene’s Pub |
| 2011 | Kara starts OrganisedSavvy.ca RBR moves to Hines Road Frank invited to join the board of CMCT in Chennai, the NGO that assisted the Chinnakuppam fishing village |
| 2012 | Oxford Blue Systems started in England under the umbrella of RBR Europe |
After this there has been a decade of consolidation and simplification. RBR moved to Hines Road, continuing to grow at 15-20% per year. By 2023 the number of employees passed 125, it had moved again to Terry Fox Drive and shows no sign of abatement. Greg took over ownership in 2013.
In 2021 the workshop contents were moved to Terry Fox, and Pawel continues to be employed there. SpectraSense was dissolved in 2019, as was Squamscott Technologies, a collaboration with Seapoint Sensors. Oxford Blue Systems was finally wound up in 2023 and Phil Gibbs took over Swale Technologies.
We remember Lyn Davies, who died in 2013, and Gabrielle Pell, who died in 2016. Their contributions have been missed.
Lyn’s company, Stowood Scientific Instruments, has continued under the leadership of his son, Gwilym Davies. Tom McDonald, John Miller and Frank Johnson are pleased to offer technical support to new product development at SSI.
Two other projects continue in 2013, In-Pulse Technologies (André Pugin), developing techniques for ELF acoustic mapping, and SailForScience (Igor Shkvorets and Iryna Troshyna) starting their voyage around the world surveying the state of the oceans in a 40′ sail boat.