MU’s vice chancellor for research, responsible for leading the university’s research enterprise, will leave his position this year, Provost Brian Foster announced Oct. 11.
Robert Duncan, appointed to the position in August 2008, has accepted the appointment of vice chancellor for research at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Duncan’s final day has not been announced, but Foster said Rob Hall, associate vice chancellor for research/director of compliance, would begin serving as interim vice chancellor for research Jan. 1.
Since Duncan’s appointment, MU researchers have filed 365 patents and signed more than 225 options and licenses for new technologies. Last year, MU researchers’ expenditures for work on federally funded grants and contracts exceeded $250 million.
Duncan created and attracted funding for the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance, a consortium of MU scientists studying low energy nuclear reactions (LENR); helped attract funding from the Coulter Foundation to initiate a research partnership that helps scientists move their discoveries from the lab to the marketplace faster; and founded the Collaboration Leadership and Innovation for Missouri Businesses (CLIMB), an organization that pairs student inventors with entrepreneurs to encourage the start-up and growth of businesses.
In 2009, Duncan was an expert on LENR for CBS’ 60 Minutes.
“I leave with a very heavy heart since I love MU and Missouri,” Duncan said in a statement. “Wherever I go, I will always be a Missourian.”