Rob Duncan

Title: Vice chancellor for research, University of Missouri

Background: Duncan joined MU in September 2008 after serving as chief operating officer of the New Mexico Consortium and founding director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has worked as an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico (UNM), a visiting associate professor of physics at Caltech, a joint associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNM, a professor of physics and astronomy at UNM, and the associate dean for research in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNM. As an expert in low-temperature physics, Duncan has conducted research that will provide critical information for future NASA missions. He has worked to fund major conferences and summer schools in quantitative biology; information science and technology; energy and the environment; and astrophysics and cosmology. He has garnered more than $8 million in funding from sources including NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.

Education: PhD, physics, University of California-Santa Barbara, 1988

Speaking Topic: Inspirational (how to run 100 miles); the importance of science and research