AUSTIN, Texas Robert A. Peterson, associate vice president of research at The University of Texas at Austin, has been appointed director of the university’s IC² Institute by Juan M. Sanchez, vice president for research at the university. The appointment is effective Sept. 1, 2013.
“As a founding fellow of the IC² Institute, Dr. Peterson is uniquely qualified to lead the institute on its path of continuous growth, relevance and impact at the national and international levels,” Sanchez said. “I am delighted that Dr. Peterson has accepted the appointment and look forward to working with him to build on the institute’s global presence.”
Peterson will replace current director John Sibley Butler, who has served in that post for the past decade. “I am grateful to Dr. Butler for his tireless leadership of the IC² Institute,” Sanchez said. “He has built on the vision and legacy of George Kozmetsky, who founded the institute in 1977.”
With the directorship of the institute, Peterson adds yet another role to his portfolio at the university, where he has been a faculty member for 43 years. Besides serving as associate vice president for research, he holds the John T. Stuart III Centennial Chair in Business Administration and is the Charles Hurwitz Fellow at the IC² Institute.
He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota. For the past few years, his research and teaching interests have been in the areas of marketing strategy, research methodology and the quality of self-report data.
He has authored nearly 200 books and articles. His articles have appeared in more than four dozen journals, and he has received many awards for his research.
He has served on the boards or as an officer of numerous organizations and foundations and as an adviser to the United States Census Bureau.
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The IC² Institute is a research unit in the Office of the Vice President for Research dedicated to finding ways that innovation, creativity and capital can work together to create wealth, jobs and stronger economies around the world. It was founded in 1977 by George Kozmetsky, who was dean of the university’s business school.
The institute’s main components are the Austin Technology Incubator, the Global Commercialization Group and the Bureau of Business Research. The institute’s 160 global fellows conduct research in a range of fields.
