Robert D. Austin (born 1962) is an innovation and technology management researcher and professor at Ivey Business School.
[1] He is best known for pedagogical innovations in the teaching of technology management, for his "artful making" research,[2] which examines business innovation through the lens of art practice, and for his research documenting the neurodiversity employment movement.
[3] Austin received bachelor's degrees in English Literature and Engineering from Swarthmore College in 1984, a master’s in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University in 1986, and a Ph.D. in Management and Decision Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 1995.
He has also spent time as a manager at the Ford Motor Company (1986-1995), a member of the executive team of a startup subsidiary of Novell (1999-2000), the CEO of an executive education foundation (2010-2011), and dean of the faculty of business administration at the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton (2011-2013).
He is the (co)author of more than 100 published articles, cases, and notes, and ten books.