Alan L. Austin, Jr. has been appointed the Desert Research Institute's vice president for finance and administration. Austin will be responsible for much of the Institute's day-to-day operations and financial management.

Austin came to DRI from the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center where he was chief operating officer for administration and finance, and assistant vice president for continuous improvement. There he achieved considerable reductions in time and expenses through broad streamlining of administrative processes. He was directly responsible for a staff of more than 100 and an operations and capital budget of nearly $50 million.

Before his work in Houston, Austin worked as a consultant specializing in strategic planning and management, as a manager for quality assurance and improvement in private industry, as a mathematical statistician for the U.S. Army, and as a stockbroker.

A California native, Austin earned a B.S. in statistics from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. in statistics/operations research and finance from the University of Houston.