As the eighth President of Georgia State University, Dr. M. Brian Blake oversees the State of Georgia’s largest university, spanning 6 campuses and a community of nearly 55,000 students and 10,000 faculty and staff. Georgia State is the largest landowner in the center of downtown Atlanta, with 5 other campuses around the city’s perimeter. Georgia State is one of the most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse Research-1 universities in the nation. With more than 23,000 Black, Brown, and African-American students, the university graduates more Black students than any other non-profit institution in the nation.
Dr. Blake introduced a strategic vision for Georgia State that emphasizes four pillars: research and innovation, student success, college to careers, and identity and placemaking. Prior to Georgia State, Dr. Blake was the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at George Washington University; executive vice president of academic affairs and the Nina Henderson Provost at Drexel University; the dean of the graduate school and vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Miami; an associate dean for research and professor at the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame; and department chair and professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University.
As an academic, Dr. Blake has held appointments in the Departments of Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. As a scholar, Dr. Blake is most known for his contributions to the areas of Internet computing and software engineering. He has authored and co-authored over 250 journal articles, books/book chapters, and refereed conference/workshop papers. Dr. Blake has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Mercer University, and a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from George Mason University. Dr. Blake lives in Atlanta with his wife, Dr. Bridget Blake, and their two sons Byrce and Brendon, a freshman in college.