Mark Becker, Vice Chair
Bergen SWAN

Mark Becker leads the Geospatial Applications Division at CIESIN, and is an adjunct faculty member at the Mailman School of Public Health. His primary interests are the development of GIS applications for public health programs, and improving urban and regional planning through geospatial technologies. At CIESIN he has partnered with numerous departments and programs at Columbia University to assist in the use of geospatial technologies: with the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, looking at the effects of air pollution on children’s health; with the Columbia Superfund Basic Research Program, developing GIS training programs in Bangladesh; and working with the Research Translation Core of the program to bring the findings and techniques of the project to a wider audience.

Since 1988, he has been the co-director of Bergen Save the Watershed Action Network (Bergen SWAN), a watershed association for the Upper Hackensack River Watershed. He is currently the vice-chair and trustee for the Meadowlands Conservation Board of Trustees. He holds an M.A. in Geography from Hunter College of the City University of New York.