Contact: Sammy McDavid
In a Sept. 5 public investiture ceremony, J. Charles Lee will be formally ratified as Mississippi State's 17th president.
The 1 p.m. program in Humphrey Coliseum is part of the continuing celebration marking the land-grant university's 125th year of service to the state, nation and world. MSU faculty, staff and students, as well as representatives of educational institutions in Mississippi and around the nation will participate in the investiture ceremony.
Lee served as MSU's chief executive for a year as interim president prior to being named permanently as the institution's leader in January this year. The North Carolina native holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees from North Carolina State University.
From 1999 until his interim appointment, he was MSU's vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine. From 1978 to 1983, he was dean of the then-School of Forest Resources, as well as associate director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.
Before returning to Mississippi State in 1999, Lee held a series of major administrative positions at Texas A&M University. His duties included leadership of the forest sciences department, dean of agriculture and life sciences, director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, and deputy chancellor of the multi-campus system. He also served for 18 months as interim executive vice president and provost of the land-grant institution in College Station.
Also part of the Sept. 5 celebration will be the Anniversary Gala Ball. The black-tie-optional affair in Humphrey Coliseum is being given by the university for its employees, major donors, advisory board members for the various academic and support divisions, and legislative and other government officials.
Investiture activities will conclude Sept. 8 with the first MSU Distinguished Lecture Series led by Claire M. Fraser and J. Craig Venter of Rockville, Md., nationally recognized pioneers in the field of genetics. Open to the public, their presentations will begin at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, in Parker Ballroom in the Hunter Henry Center. A reception for the scientists will be held in the nearby atrium between the two lectures.
Fraser's topic in the first session will be "Healing to Evolution: Harnessing the Genome," while Venter, her husband, will lead a discussion on "Our Genomic Future." She is president and director of The Institute for Genomic Research; he is president and director of the Center for the Advancement of Genomics and Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives.
Genomes are the full set of chromosomes containing all inheritable traits of a living organism. In 2000, Venter received Time magazine's Scientist of the Year designation for his role in cracking the human genetic code--an accomplishment the publication called "perhaps the most important scientific event of the past century."
For additional information on the investiture events, telephone Ruth Prescott at (662) 325-3742 or Linda Jo Templeton at 325-7000.