Burroughs, Robert Eli, 1904-1978.

Assistant director of the Engineering Research Institute, later director of its successor organization, the Research Institute [reorganized in 1961 as the Office of Research Administration (ORA)] of the University of Michigan.

Robert Eli Burroughs was born in 1904 in Everett, North Carolina. He received his B.S. degree from North Carolina State University in 1925, and his M.A. from Duke University in 1926. Following his graduation, he was employed as a researcher and physicist for Kodak Research Laboratory at Purdue University. He held this position until 1942, when he became a commander in the U.S. Navy. After World War II, Burroughs worked as the manager of several of the different research and engineering laboratories at the General Electric Company. In 1956 he came to the University of Michigan as the cost director of the Engineering Research Institute. He was soon appointed the director of the Engineering Research Institute's successor organization, the University of Michigan Research Institute. In 1962 he was appointed director of the Office of Research Administration, where he served until his retirement in 1974. He died in 1978.

The University of Michigan Research Institute was a support organization responsible for the activities of researchers in academic units across the university. It offered personnel management, proposal preparation and processing, editorial and translation, report preparation, electronic instrumentation, photographic services, a machine shop, and security and safety expertise. The Research Institute, after several reorganizations, is currently known as the Division of Research Development Administration.