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Dr. Holden Thorp,
distinguished professor of chemistry and dean of UNC's College of Arts
and Sciences, has been named Chancellor of the University, effective
July 1, 2008.
An award-winning teacher and researcher, Thorp, a native of Fayetteville, N.C., has held several important leadership positions on campus since joining the University faculty in 1993. In July 2005 he became Kenan Professor and chair of the chemistry department. In 2002, he became faculty director for a fundraising effort that has produced gifts and pledges totaling about $17 million as part of the funding required for the first phase of the Carolina Physical Science Complex, the largest construction project in the university's history.
From 2001 to 2005, Thorp served as director of UNC's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, a newly expanded museum providing informal science education throughout North Carolina. An estimated 130,000 visitors attended science programs at the historic landmark during the last fiscal year. Under Thorp's leadership, the center created "DNA: The Secret of Life," a 30-minute film for science museums that is permanently installed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and playing at science museums throughout North America.
Thorp has published more than 120 scholarly publications on the electronic properties of DNA and RNA. He has invented technology for electronic DNA chips that is the basis of 19 issued or pending U.S. patents. One of his technologies is being used to provide a less expensive blood test to determine if prospective parents carry the gene for cystic fibrosis.
For his DNA chip technology, Thorp was recognized as one of the Top Innovators of 2001 by Fortune Small Business magazine. He also has been advisor, co-founder or consultant with many small companies, including Novalon Pharmaceuticals, MaxCyte, Osmetech, OhmX and Plextronics. In 2005, Thorp co-founded Viamet Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to finding new drugs for metalloenzymes. Viamet recently raised $6 million in venture capital from firms in Research Triangle Park, Chicago and Silicon Valley.
Thorp has won many other honors for his research, including a Presidential Young Investigator Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, and both the New Faculty Award and Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation.
In addition, he won the University's Tanner award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.
Thorp received his bachelor of science degree, with highest honors, in chemistry from UNC in 1986. He went on to receive his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1989. He came to UNC in 1993 as an assistant professor of chemistry.
Dean Thorp's Remarks:
Chancellor-Elect
Thorp's acceptance speech
No
Side Deals: Meeting the challenges of academic leadership
today
Meeting the challenges of entrepreneurship
Caring for the heart of
a great research university
December 2006
commencement address
