CityView Magazine

People love this university,” Thorp said. “My job is to make re that the image of the university is protected, and that the ople running it have everything they need to succeed. It’s e music – I need to make sure I’m playing the best possible ord to make the soloists and the band sound great.” “People love this university. My job is to make sure that the image of the university is protected, and that the people running it have everything they need to succeed. It’s like music – I need to make sure I’m playing the best possible chord to make the soloists and the band sound great.” - Holden Thorp more naturally to him. Still, he enjoys a dexterity on all three, and keeps his skills on each well-tuned, testing them occasionally at drop-by jams with the UNC Jazz Band or performances for any number of university occasions. Last winter, Thorp even provided the musical accompaniment for a rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” during a women’s basketball game between UNC and the University of Connecticut. Berklee and jazz soon gave way to Thorp’s pursuit of chemistry and science, an interest he developed at Terry Sanford High School. He first studied at UNC-Chapel Hill then as a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology and finally Yale University, where he earned his doctorate. After a brief teaching stint at North Carolina State University in the early 1990s, Thorp returned to his alma mater in Chapel Hill in 1993, 24|August/September • 2009 turning down teaching offers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. “This is where I’ve been, this is my home,” he says, reflecting on his career decisions, especially the choice to return to North Carolina nearly two decades ago. “Sometimes, when things get wild, we think we should have gone the other route. But things were going to get wild no matter what we did.” Now Thorp has a rare opportunity to not only be home, but to run his alma mater, put his stamp on it. Thorp was named chancellor last summer following the resignation of his predecessor, James Moeser. He was widely hailed as a brilliant choice for the position, bringing raw, solid intellect plus a down-to-earth nature to the job. Thorp previously served as director of the Morehead Planetarium, and has, until now, served on the faculty in the chemistry department. He will watch his last two doctoral students graduate this summer and admits that he will miss teaching. But his first year as chancellor has been an opportunity to see how the entire university operates. Like any good academic, he’s used the time to observe, learn and study the task at hand. “People love this university,” Thorp said. “My job is to make sure that the image of the university is protected, and that the people running it have everything they need to succeed. It’s like music – I need to make sure I’m playing the best possible chord to make the soloists and the band sound great.” Taking the analogy further, he continues: “They can play great music even if I’m not playing the right chord, but it can make it significantly better if I’m playing it right.”CV

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