Stephen Provencher, former EMBL Heidelberg Group Leader, passed away on Thursday 10 July 2025.

It is with sadness that we share the news of the loss of Stephen Provencher after a long battle with cancer. Stephen was a Group Leader in the Structural and Computational Biology Unit at EMBL Heidelberg from 1978 until 1985. May he rest in peace.

Stephen was born on November 3, 1942, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his BA in Chemistry from Clark University in Worcester and continued to receive his PhD in Chemistry from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Clark University was always close to his heart. Stephen felt that Clark transformed his life, allowing him to be rigorously challenged in the sciences.

Besides science, Stephen had a passion for car racing and won multiple trophies in the Formula Ford series. Through an automotive internship, he learned how to repair his own racing cars.

Stephen met his wife, Carola Koitz, while working at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, when Stephen was a group leader at EMBL.

In 2000, Stephen and Carola moved to Oakville, Ontario, Canada, where they started LCModel, Inc. A popular software program used for interpreting diagnostic medical research data, the software has been sold worldwide for more than 20 years and is utilised in conjunction with MRI, PET, and other spectroscopy-based medical studies. Stephen retired from the company in 2022.

Carola Koitz

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