Dr. Petrosino serves as the Associate Dean for Research and Outreach in SMU’s Simmons School and Professor in the Simmons Department of Teaching and Learning. Prior to coming to SMU in fall 2019, he served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Petrosino has received more than 17 million dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and the McDonnel Foundation for Cognitive Studies. His research interests include students' understanding of experimentation, engineering education and the development of expertise. He is Co-Founder of the nationally recognized UTeach Program. He is a Learning Scientist and an Associate Professor of Science and Mathematics Education and the Elizabeth G. Gibb Endowed Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University where he was a member of the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) for five years. While doing his doctoral work, Petrosino was a NASA Space Grant Fellow funded through the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was a seven year member of the NSF funded VaNTH ERC and a Principle Investigator of a Department of Education funded PT3 grant. Petrosino taught secondary science for seven years and is a certified K-12 teacher of science. In addition he was an Assistant Superintendent of Schools for 2 years and was also a secondary school administrator for three years. Dr. Petrosino has published over 40 peer reviewed journal articles, made over 100 national and international conference presentations and has supervised a dozen doctoral dissertations. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Science Education and Technology, The Journal of the Learning Sciences, Mathematical Thinking and Learning, Educational Computing Research, The Journal of Engineering Education, and The American Educational Research Journal.