President, Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Biography
Dr. Murray Brockman took the helm at GSSM in May 2001, following a 20-plus year career with the DuPont Company. He began his career with DuPont as a research chemist in Waynesboro, VA, and held a variety of management positions in various locations around the US, retiring as plant manager and technical director prior to joining GSSM.
He is a native of Greer, SC, and graduated from Furman University, where he majored in chemistry. After teaching chemistry and physics in high school in Boston, MA, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physical chemistry, studying computer models of the spectra of chiral molecules. He joined DuPont after postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Throughout his career, Dr. Brockman has maintained close contact with and support for public education, serving in advisory roles for computerization in Chesterfield County, VA, parental support network planning in Seaford, DE, and on the Governor's Quality in Education Commission in North Carolina.
A past member of the board of directors of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, he fondly remembers working with state government to attract a new DuPont plant to build in Goose Creek, SC, in 1999. Dr. Brockman currently serves on numerous boards, including the National Merit Scholarship Corporation Advisory Council, the South Carolina Coalition for Science and Mathematics, the TEACH Foundation and the Advisory Board for the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute, as well as the GSSM Foundation.
He and his wife Bene', a native of Fairfax, VA, met at Furman. She is active in Habitat for Humanity and the Episcopal Church. They have four sons, who live and work in various locations around the country, one grandson and two granddaughters. Dr. Brockman's hobbies include hiking, bird watching, physical fitness and theoretical physics.