Office of the Provost

Academic Affairs

Provost

Dr. Richard C. Holz

A bioinorganic chemist by training, Dr. Richard Holz’s research work focuses on structure/function studies of metalloenzymes, including the design, synthesis and characterization of small molecules that function as potent inhibitors. He continues to maintain an active research group and is currently funded by the National Science Foundation.

Holz holds a PhD from Pennsylvania State University, MS from University of Minnesota-Duluth and BS from Bemidji State University, all in chemistry. He was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Minnesota from 1989 to 1992 and a faculty member at Utah State University from 1992 to 2006.

Immediately prior to joining Mines in June 2019, Holz served as dean of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University, where he led the largest of the university’s nine colleges and schools, guiding 12 academic departments, 40 undergraduate majors, 14 interdisciplinary programs and 18 graduate degree programs. During his tenure as dean, he oversaw the establishment of five new entrepreneurial centers of excellence – including the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute, made possible by a $6.25 million corporate donation – launched multiple innovative interdisciplinary degrees and more than tripled the number of student internship opportunities.

Prior to joining Marquette in 2013, Holz spent seven years at Loyola University Chicago, where he served as associate dean for resources and planning in the College of Arts and Sciences (2011-2013) and as chairman of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department (2006-2011).