Harris Pastides named University
of South Carolina's
28th president

July 11, 2008

 

Harris Pastides biography

Harris Pastides, the University of South Carolina's 28th president, was previously vice president for research and health sciences at South Carolina. He is also executive director of the university's Research Foundation.

 

Under Pastides' leadership, research funding and sponsored programs at South Carolina have increased 69.2 percent since 2002, reaching a record $185.2 million for fiscal year 2007.

 

Pastides served as dean of the University's Arnold School of Public Health from 1998-2003. He was instrumental in helping to secure a $10 million gift from Norman and Gerry Sue Arnold for the naming rights to the school in 2002. The new $22 million Arnold School of Public Health Research Center opened in October 2006.

 

Before joining the South Carolina faculty, Pastides served as a professor of epidemiology and chairman of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He received his Master's of Public Health and his Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Yale University.

 

Pastides is charged with accomplishing major growth in federal and industrially sponsored research. The following have been chosen as focus areasthat have the potential to be recognized as among the top programs nationally: nanotechnology, Future Fuels™ (including fuel cell and hydrogen research), and several targeted areas of biomedical research.

 

Pastides manages the university's research budget and directs investments toward faculty hiring, enhancing research infrastructure, and developing the Innovista research and innovation district.

 

In his economic development role, Pastides is the university's chief contact with business, industry, and the state's Department of Commerce. The economic development office includes intellectual property and technology transfer programs, a small-business incubator, and consultative services for small manufacturers and start-up businesses.

 

The Division of Health Sciences comprises approximately 450 faculty and 3,400 undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled in some 52 degree programs. Because biomedical research has been selected as one of the university's major research priorities, he has established a major faculty hiring emphasis and a master plan for major new research facilities to support this research area.

 

Pastides has overall responsibility for academic affairs in the five health sciences colleges, including curricular matters; student welfare; and faculty recruitment, promotion and tenure, and retention.

 

The University of South Carolina has affiliate agreements with the two largest health systems in the state, as well as with the Dorn Veterans Administration Hospital, with which the university operates residencies and other educational and research programs.

 

Pastides serves as executive director of the S.C. Research Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. In this capacity, he oversees the distribution of indirect cost recovered funds, directs faculty research policies, and manages research administrative services. He also supervises university federal relations staff who reside in the Washington, D.C., area.