Becker takes reins at GSU

Mark P. Becker, 50, provost of the University of South Carolina, will be the new president of Georgia State University.

Becker was named Thursday in a conference-call meeting by the state’s Board of Regents to replace the retiring Carl V. Patton. Patton has headed the university since 1992.

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Georgia Board of Regents

Mark P. Becker

Higher education

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Becker, who is traveling in Asia, said in an e-mail interview that he will bring “energy, a passion for and commitment to higher education, and significant academic leadership” to his new role. He is expected to take office in January.

“Georgia State,” he said, “is poised to advance as one of our nation’s leading urban public research universities. There is the opportunity, building on its location in Atlanta and the tremendous progress made under President Patton’s leadership, for the university to enhance Atlanta’s national and global stature.”

Becker, a statistician, has been executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina since 2004. He previously worked as a biostatistics professor and dean of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and held posts at the University of Michigan, University of Washington, University of Florida and Cornell University.

His doctorate is in statistics from Pennsylvania State University.