Professor Samuel B Mukasa is Executive Vice President and Provost Emeritus at the State
University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Before that role, he
served as Professor and Department Chair for Environmental Sciences at the University of
Michigan, and Dean for Colleges of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota
and University of New Hampshire. He holds a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the University of
California, Santa Barbara, M.Sc. in geology from Ohio State University, and B.Sc. in geology
from the University of New Hampshire. He also received a D.EnvSc. honorary degree from
Nkumba University in Uganda. He did his postdoctoral research fellowship at Columbia
University, New York.
Mukasa’s research interests focus on the origin of Earth’s geochemical structure, plate
tectonic evolution of the continents, and climate change. He and his research team have
deployed petrologic and geochemical methods, specifically integrated use of trace
elements and Pb, Nd, Sr, Hf, and Os isotopes to model the petrogenesis of rocks and
mineral deposits from Earth’s interior. Also, they have applied U/Pb and 40Ar/39Ar
geochronology to calculate the rates of various geologic processes. He and his group have
published over 200 research papers in world-renowned journals which so far have received
about 48,000 reads and 6,500 citations.
He is Past President of the Geochemical Society, Past Chair of the Advisory Board for the
OVice of Polar Programs at the US National Science Foundation, Past Member of the US
Polar Research Board, and a member of several US National Academy of Sciences
committees. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Mukasa was born in Kenya to Ugandan parents and remains committed to his heritage and
the advancement of science and engineering throughout Africa
