KU News Release

Warren named interim vice provost for research and graduate studies; Roberts completes decade with research center

Steve Warren

Jim Roberts

LAWRENCE — Steve Warren, director of the University of Kansas’ internationally known Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, will become interim vice provost for research and graduate studies at KU in August. Warren will succeed Jim Roberts, who has decided to step down after a decade at the KU Center for Research Inc. and will resume his role as a professor of electrical engineering full time.

“Steve is intimately familiar with the challenges and opportunities of running a major research program and will provide excellent stewardship during the interim period,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Lariviere.

Since 2001, Warren has directed the Life Span Institute, one of the nation’s largest research programs for the prevention and treatment of developmental disabilities. He came to KU in 1999 from Vanderbilt University, where he was a professor of special education and deputy director of the John F. Kennedy Center for Human Development, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious mental retardation research programs.

Lariviere praised Roberts for his leadership of research on the Lawrence campus.

“Jim was present at the creation of the KU Center for Research in 1997,” said Lariviere. “Since then, research space has grown 50 percent, the volume of research has tripled and KU’s national research ranking climbed 10 places. Jim was part of all of that, as a strong and effective advocate for the university’s mission in research and graduate studies.

“There are few people more loyal and more dedicated to this superb institution than Jim Roberts. We are all grateful to him for the 10 years he invested in KUCR and for everything that he continues to do for KU.”

Roberts joined the KU faculty in 1990 as professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As chair, he led the merger of two departments to form the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Roberts became associate vice chancellor and then associate vice provost for research in 1998. He served in that capacity until 2003, when he became interim vice provost for research. In 2004, he was named to the position on a permanent basis.

“I’ve been deeply involved with the KU research office since the fall of 1996, beginning as a member of the faculty committee that established the KU Center for Research,” said Roberts. “I’ve had an influence on the direction of research policy and research administration for more than 10 years, and I think that’s long enough.”

Roberts earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from KU in 1966. He received a master’s in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968 and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University in 1979.

Roberts’ return to KU in 1990 followed a career in industry. From 1969 to 1983, he held management positions with ESL Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up company that became a subsidiary of TRW in 1978. He then held management positions with TRW’s Systems Integration Group in Denver from 1983 to 1990.

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