Matt Saderholm

Dr. Saderholm was appointed Dean of the Faculty on July 1, 2019. In this role, he serves as the chief administrator of the teaching faculty. In association with the Provost, he is responsible for the efficacy of the departments of instruction; instruction of the student body; the recruitment, hiring, workload, and performance review of the faculty; maintaining the effectiveness and well-being of the faculty; and maintenance and review of the curriculum.

Dr. Saderholm graduated from Berea College with a B.A. in Chemistry in 1992, after which he spent a year at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland (ETHZ) on a Fulbright Fellowship studying physical and biochemistry. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1998 where he studied de novo protein engineering in the lab of Bruce Erickson. Before joining the Berea College Chemistry faculty, Dr. Saderholm completed a post-doctoral fellowship in enzymology in the laboratory of Carol Fierke at Duke University, studying the enzyme protein farnesyltransferase. Since joining Berea College he has taught across the Chemistry and General Education curriculum and served in many administrative leadership positions, including Department Chair, Division Chair, and Faculty Project Shepherd for the Margaret A. Cargill Natural Sciences and Health Building. He has also traveled abroad repeatedly, visiting the Galapagos Islands on a faculty development trip and teaching an international class on the Science of Fermentation in Germany and France.

Dr. Saderholm’s research interests focus on two main themes: 1) experimental biochemistry experiments that use peptides to probe protein structure and function and 2) increasing the effectiveness of STEM teaching methods through peer-reviewed and data-driven changes in pedagogy.