Dan Lopez

 

Former president of New Mexico Tech Dan Lopez has been named to the Board of regents at Western New Mexico University, according to an announcement by the State Higher Education Department.
Lopez, known to many in Socorro as “Dr. Dan,” was nominated by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and confirmed by the Senate last week. He retired from Tech after 29 years with the university, 23 of those years as its president.
He currently serves on the board of directors for First Community Bank in Albuquerque.
Lopez was president of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology between 1993 and 2016 and is a tenured faculty member. He previously served as cabinet secretary for the Department of Finance and Administration and senior staff analyst for the House Appropriations and Finance Committee for the New Mexico Legislature.
Lopez is a recipient of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association’s Pete Porter Lifetime Achievement Award and the Barnard S. Rodey Award for Leadership in Higher Education from the University of New Mexico’s Alumni Association, among others.
The Daniel H. Lopez Chemistry building at New Mexico Tech was named in his honor in 2016.

John Larson, El Defensor Chieftain