Mark's Ph.D. is from the University of Michigan, with a specialization in the history of philosophy. He taught at Rice for 40 years, starting in 1975. He was Chair of the Philosophy Department , was a Humboldt Fellow, and has served two terms as President of the Leibniz Society of North America. In 2020-2021 he was a Director of ARRUF. One of his projects was the institution of a way of forming interest groups in the Association. He personally started two interest groups, one on travel and one on nature, and continues as leader of the latter. A hobby is birding.