Interim provost David Kotz ’86 can drop the “interim” from his title: The College announced today in a campus-wide email that Kotz has been appointed provost, effectively immediately. He has served as interim provost since July 2021, when former provost Joseph Helble left to become president of Lehigh University, and also worked in the role from Oct. 2017 to Oct. 2018.
“I look forward to working with President Hanlon and the senior leadership team as we plan for Dartmouth’s future,” Kotz wrote in an emailed statement to The Dartmouth. “I am also eager to continue engaging with students and faculty to advance the academic mission of the College.”
As provost, Kotz will continue to lead the College’s COVID-19 response and manage its budget alongside executive vice president Rick Mills. The duo’s tenure heading the pandemic response has been marked by an increased commitment to in-person classes and operations — even in the face of the highly contagious omicron variant, the rapid spread of which has led to a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases on campus this winter.
Kotz previously served as the associate dean for the faculty of arts and sciences and as director of the Institute for Security, Technology, and Society as well as the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, according to the College’s email. As a computer science researcher, Kotz has published over 200 reviewed scientific papers and brought in more than $89 million in grant funding. Kotz graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in computer science and physics, later earning a PhD from Duke University. He started working at the College in 1991.
The search committee in charge of the appointment included Dartmouth faculty, alumni and administration members, as well as one student, Anastasia Perez Ternent ’22.
