University of North Carolina
Turning down employment offers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley, Thorp returned to his alma mater in 1993 to teach, rising from visiting assistant professor to professor in six years. In 1998, he received a Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
In 2001, Thorp became the director of the Morehead Planetarium, part of UNC. That fall, he co-led a student focus group responsible for exploring and providing feedback on the University's consideration of a branch campus of the Kenan–Flagler Business School in Qatar. In 2005, he was named a Kenan Professor and chair of the chemistry department of the College of Arts and Sciences. He led the 2005 committee that selected the book as recommended reading for that fall's incoming freshmen, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story, by North Carolina native Timothy B. Tyson.
He became the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2007, after a nationwide search. One year later, he was named chancellor of the University after being nominated by Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina System, and unanimously chosen by the Board of Governors.
On September 17, in an email to students, Thorp indicated that he would step down from the position of chancellor as of June 30, 2013.
Read more about this topic: Holden Thorp
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