Stanley Rosenburg



Doctor Rosenberg is an employee of the Black Mesa Research Facility, assigned to advanced physics research in the Anomalous Materials Laboratory and Lambda Sector. Dr. Rosenberg can be also seen in Half-Life: Decay with Doctor Richard Keller at his side. Dr. Rosenberg's rank is unknown, but he has the highest level of security clearance, and judging by his habit of automatically issuing instructions to other advanced researchers, it would appear that he is a very senior member of the Science Team. In Half-Life: Blue Shift, Barney Calhoun helped Dr. Rosenberg and two of his colleagues escape from Black Mesa. He is also the designer of the anti-mass spectrometer.

Following the resonance cascade at Black Mesa, Dr. Rosenberg and a team of surviving personnel bring an elderly prototype teleporter online, allowing the team to teleport to an overlooked part of the facility and escape by road. Dr. Rosenberg's fate is unknown, but as one of his team, Barney Calhoun, survives the incident, it can be assumed that Rosenberg and his colleagues (Walter and Simmons) escape successfully from Black Mesa.

Half-Life: Decay
Rosenberg's first chronological appearance is in Decay. When Gina Cross and Colette Green first arrive at the test chamber's control room and are receiving instructions from Dr. Keller, Rosenberg interrupts and voices his concern to Keller over having the anti-mass spectrometer run above 90% capacity, which is past the safety buffer zone for the equipment. Dr. Keller, however, dismisses his concern and states that the administrator's orders for this were clear. He tells Rosenberg that he can either stay and watch the experiment or return to his labs by the train yards. Rosenberg remains, and shortly thereafter the resonance cascade occurs.

Immediately after the disaster, Rosenberg converses with Dr. Keller and makes clear that he believes their greatest responsibility should be to the safety of the people at Black Mesa. Although Keller thinks that they should attempt to reset the displacement fields first, he eventually agrees with Rosenberg and they come up with a plan to contact the military so that they can help and evacuate the facility as soon as possible. Gina and Colette escort Rosenberg through the Hazard Course to a satellite communications center on the surface, where he is able transmit a distress signal. Dr. Rosenberg decides to wait there for the military, and this is the last time he's seen in Decay as Gina and Colette return below to assist Dr. Keller. However, his voice is heard once more in the game later on.

Half-Life: Blue Shift
Some time between Gina and Colette's last sight of Rosenberg in Decay and Calhoun's eventual rescue of the scientist in Blue Shift, he evidently discovers the military's ulterior motives of silencing all of the facility's personnel and, with the help of several other scientists, tries to enact an escape plan to get out of Black Mesa. During this time, though, he is captured by soldiers and held captive in a freight car for questioning, while a colleague, Harold, is cornered and fatally wounded. Before Harold dies, Barney Calhoun discovers him, and he instructs Calhoun to find Dr. Rosenberg to help him with his plan. Calhoun is able to overcome the military occupying the train yards and frees Dr. Rosenberg. Rosenberg informs him that their plan is to use the equipment in the prototype labs to teleport to safety.

He leads Calhoun to the unused part of the complex where two other scientists, Walter Bennett and Simmons, are already preparing the machine. Rosenberg instructs Calhoun that he must activate and align a relay device on Xen in order for them to be able to accurately set their destination. Calhoun travels to Xen and is successful in accomplishing this task, but after returning through the portal back to Earth (It is here that Gina and Colette in Decay, temporariliy caught in a harmonic reflux, hear Rosenberg's voice calling Calhoun through the portal), they discover that they need another power cell to replenish the teleporter's power for their escape. Calhoun acquires a newly charged power cell from the lab's sub-basement and delivers it to Rosenberg and the others. Dr. Rosenberg then initiates the system and brings it online. They all narrowly avoid the military's invasion of the prototype labs, teleporting to the safety of an unnoticed access tunnel. They get into an SUV and leave Black Mesa.

Trivia

 * In Blue Shift, Rosenberg makes his first appearance during the Hazard Course tutorial, long before Calhoun encounters him in the train yards. He can be seen behind the observer's window during the duck-jump portion of the training.