Alan G. Merten

Dr. Alan Gilbert Merten is fifth president of George Mason University.

Merten took his undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin in 1963, then took a master's degree at Stanford University in 1964 before returning to the University of Wisconsin to take his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1970.

Merten had been the dean of Cornell University's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management for seven years before being named president of GMU in March, 1996. Before that, he had been dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Florida and an associate dean at the University of Michigan.

Merten took office on July 1, 1996, replacing George W. Johnson.

On March 23, 2011, Merten announced that he would retire from the presidency in June, 2012.