Mathematical biologist Santiago Schnell will serve as Dartmouth’s next provost, College President Sian Leah Beilock wrote in an email to campus today. Schnell, who currently serves as the dean of the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science, will succeed outgoing Provost David Kotz ’86 on July 1.
As provost, Schnell will serve as the College’s chief academic and budget officer and oversee the Geisel School of Medicine, Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business, Beilock wrote.
“What drew me to Dartmouth is its rare convergence of liberal arts education and research excellence,” Schnell wrote in Beilock’s message. “ ... This synthesis places Dartmouth in a position of national and global influence. It stands poised to become a unique beacon — ‘vox clamantis in deserto’ — for the future of higher education. Serving Dartmouth is a singular opportunity to help shape that future.”
Schnell will also work with the new dean of Arts and Sciences, currently held as an interim position by economics professor Nina Pavcnik, to create the undergraduate school of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to the provost post, Schnell will hold faculty appointments in the mathematics department and at the Geisel School of Medicine.
According to Beilock’s email, Schnell’s research on the role of enzymes in chemical reactions draws from his own experience with chronic immune illnesses, including Crohn’s disease and cancer. He developed the Schnell-Mendoza equation — used by scientists to measure how enzymes work — with physicist Claudio Mendoza and improved the DNA-copying polymerase chain reaction laboratory technique.
Schnell received a biology degree from the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela and a Ph.D. in mathematical biology from the University of Oxford. He previously held faculty positions at Notre Dame, the University of Michigan and Oxford.
Search advisory committee chair and government professor Brendan Nyhan wrote in Beilock’s message that Schnell “won us over from day one.” Beilock previously announced the creation of an advisory committee of administrative, faculty, student and trustee representatives to lead the search for a new provost with search firm Isaacson, Miller in an Oct. 16, 2024, email to campus.
Kotz previously told The Dartmouth that he plans to return full-time to the computer science department following a year-long sabbatical.
Kelsey Wang is a reporter and editor for The Dartmouth from the greater Seattle area, majoring in history and government. Outside of The D, she likes to crochet, do jigsaw puzzles and paint.
