About the Provost
Provost and V.P. for Academic Affairs
Provost and V.P. for Academic Affairs Chuck Staben joined The University of South Dakota in August 2008. As provost, Dr. Staben oversees much of the overall progress on USD's strategic plan. He is particularly interested in improved retention and graduation by students and increased impact of faculty scholarship and creative activity.
Chuck served as the Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky from 2005-2009. Prior to that appointment, he was the Department Chair of Biology at the University of Kentucky from 2000-2004 and a Biology Professor at the same institution from 1989- 2008. Previously he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University from 1987-1989, at Chiron Research Laboratories from 1985-1986 and a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of California, Berkeley from 1978-1984.
Dr. Staben's research interests focused on bioinformatics, especially in fungal genomics. He has taught microbiology, genetics, bioinformatics, and introductory biology. At USD, he has taught in the IDEA program and been a guest lecturer in multiple courses. Dr. Staben has over 20 publications and has served as an advisor for Postdoctoral, Ph.D. and M.S. students.
Dr. Staben received extramural grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health as well as from other agencies. He has received numerous awards for teaching. Staben received a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.
