As the Higgins Research Professor at Harvard University, Dr. Holm is credited with changing the manner in which inorganic chemistry is applied. According to his esteemed counterparts, the intellectual rigor Dr. Holm has brought to the discipline transformed the way inorganic chemists approach new synthetic problems and informs the methods of new generations of chemists, thereby raising the standards and enlarging the accomplishments of an entire field of chemistry. His notable achievements in research include developing a rational approach to synthesis of biomimetic low molecular weight complexes that duplicate biological Fe-S centers and creating the chemical and intellectual framework for understanding their function.
Dr. Holm received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and went on to earn his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin, MIT and Stanford University. He joined Harvard University in 1980. Dr. Holm has published numerous research papers in various areas in inorganic chemistry and held more than 90 named lectureships and plenary lectures in the U. S. and abroad.