SciFi Avg guy holds key to finding genius

This was a fiction book I read back in the late '90's or thereabouts.

The premise of the story was that mankind had setup a colony to try and breed/create a super intelligence. The project is shut down but they did not realize they had succeeded due to that individual creating a separate personality. Eventually his 'friends' come looking for him, trying to tap into the unlimited intellect of the locked away genius. They travel to other planets, etc while trying to unlock the mystery of the genius' whereabouts.

I think the main characters name is Ivan or something like that while missing genius has an unmeasured IQ. The group was raised in a facility that attempts to create one such as this. I don;t remember much more than that other than there are 3 or 4 main characters.

I believe the book was written in the '80's but cannot be sure and i think it was intended for adults. This novel was much like the Ender Wiggin's series.

I think this is Macroscope by Piers Anthony (yeah, the Xanth guy). The main character's name is Ivo who has hidden away his genius personality. Everything else largely fits, but it's older than you thought. Might have been rereleased when Anthony hit big with his comic fantasies, which are absolutely nothing like this.

After I posted this message, I recalled that the name of the character was Ivo and that led me to the name of the book, thanks to Google. Thanks for the help!