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	<h2>Holden Thorp</h2>
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		Holden Thorp, a Carolina alumnus and Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's 10th Chancellor. Prior to taking that post, Thorp served as the dean of UNC's College of Arts and Sciences from July 2007 to July 2008.

		Thorp obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1986 where he worked with Professor 
		Thomas J. Meyer.  He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in Harry B. Gray’s laboratory at the 
		California Institute of Technology.  After postdoctoral research at Yale with Gary Brudvig, 
		he began his independent research career in 1991 and has published over 120 scholarly publications 
		on the electronic properties of DNA and RNA.  For research, Thorp was named a Presidential Young 
		Investigator and has received the 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.  
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		Thorp invented technology for electronic DNA chips that is the subject of 14 issued or pending 
		US Patents and is presently being commercialized by Osmetech LLC.  For his DNA chip technology, 
		Thorp was recognized as one of the Top Innovators of 2001 by Fortune Small Business magazine.  
		Thorp has been advisor, co-founder or consultant with many small companies, including Novalon 
		Pharmaceuticals, Xanthon, Osmetech, OhmX, Plextronics, and MaxCyte.  In 2005, Thorp co-founded 
		Viamet Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to finding new drugs for metalloenzymes.  Viamet 
		received seed financing from Intersouth Partners in July 2005.  
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		In July 2005, Thorp became Kenan Professor and chair of the chemistry department at UNC.  
		Under his leadership, the department moved into the new facilities the W. Lowry and Susan S. 
		Caudill Laboratories and Max C. Chapman Jr. Hall.  In July 2007, Thorp was selected through a 
		national search to become Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, which is the largest unit at UNC.  
		The College teaches over 14,000 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students, and houses 54 academic departments and other units.
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		From 2001 – 2004, Thorp served as the Director for the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (MPSC), 
		which is a museum on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus 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 his leadership, MPSC increased their attendance by 40% and created “DNA:  The Secret of Life,” a 
		30-minute movie for science museums installed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and 
		playing at science museums throughout North America.  He was also Executive Producer of a number of planetarium 
		shows, including “Magic Tree House Space Mission,” which was developed with bestselling author Mary Pope Osborne 
		and has broken numerous box-office records at the Morehead Planetarium.
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		At UNC, Thorp received the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Distinguished Young 
		Alumnus Award, and was Commencement Speaker in December 2006.
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	<p>
		
			
		
		Office of the Chancellor<br />
		103 South Building<br />
		Campus Box 9100<br />
		UNC-CH<br />
		Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3290<br />
		holden@unc.edu
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