Atlanta — October 30, 2008

Dr. Mark P. Becker, 50, executive vice president for Academic Affairs and provost, the University of South Carolina, Columbia, was named today as the seventh president of Georgia State University in Atlanta by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Becker will assume his new post in January 2009, according to Board of Regents Chair Richard Tucker. He replaces Dr. Carl V. Patton, who in Nov. 2007 announced his intention to retire once a new president had been selected.

“This has been an important presidential search for a star in American research universities,” said Tucker. “Dr. Becker tremendously impressed the campus search committee and the regents with his thinking regarding Georgia State’s future.”

University System Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. said that Becker’s appointment would entrust Georgia State “to an individual poised to build upon the great strides the university has made under Dr. Patton’s 16 years at the helm.”

The search committee was uniformly impressed with Becker said search committee chair Regent William Cleveland: “The members saw in Becker someone ready for this great challenge, and made a whole-hearted recommendation to the board of him as an excellent candidate.”

Becker has held his current position at the University of South Carolina since 2004. Prior to his current appointment, from 2001 to 2004, Becker worked for the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, as a professor of biostatistics, an assistant vice president for public health preparedness and emergency response and as dean of the School of Public Health.

He held a number of academic and administrative positions at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from 1989 to 2000. Becker also has held academic posts at the University of Washington, Seattle (1987-1989), the University of Florida, Gainesville (1985-1989), and Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (1995-1996).

During his career, Becker has been involved in a number of professional associations related to his expertise, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, where he is a Fellow, and the International Biometric Society. He has served on a number of editorial boards of publications dealing with statistics and sociology and is a published author in these fields, as well as a consultant for business and professional associations. His research has been supported in part by grants from a variety of sources, and he was the principal investigator on research grants from the National Institutes of Health and from the National Science Foundation.

Becker earned his Ph.D. in statistics from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. and a bachelor of science in mathematics (Magna Cum Laude) from Towson State University, Towson, Md. He and his wife, Laura Voisinet, have two children.

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