G.P. (Bud) Peterson has been named the top finalist in the search for the next president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, university officials said today. Mr. Peterson has served as chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder since 2006. The University System of Georgia’s governing board will consider his candidacy at a future meeting.

If formally appointed, Mr. Peterson would replace G. Wayne Clough, Georgia Tech’s longtime president who left last July to lead the Smithsonian Institution.

With a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, Mr. Peterson was provost of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before arriving in Colorado. A former research scientist at the NASA-Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Mr. Peterson is a member of National Science Board. He is also familiar with major-college athletics, having played football as an undergraduate at Kansas State University in addition to overseeing Colorado’s sports programs. —Paul Fain