G. P. Bud Peterson

G. P. “Bud” Peterson is currently President Emeritus and Regents Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served as the 11th president from April 1, 2009 through August 31, 2019. Peterson came to Georgia Tech from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he served as Chancellor. He previously served as provost at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York and was a member of the faculty at Texas A&M for nearly 20 years, serving in numerous administrative roles. His research interests focus on the fundamental aspects of phase-change heat transfer, including the heat transfer in reduced gravity environments, boiling from enhanced surfaces, and some of the earliest work in the area of flow and phase-change heat transfer in microchannels. More recent investigations have included fundamental applications of phase-change heat transfer to the field of biotechnology, including the insitu-treatment of cancerous tissue using hypo and hyperthermia and arresting epileptic seizures through the rapid cooling of localized tissue in the brain. Peterson earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, a second bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and a master’s degree in Engineering, all from Kansas State University. He earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He and his wife, Val, have four adult children, two of whom are Georgia Tech alumni and four grandchildren.