Dr. Holden Thorp is editor-in-chief for the Science Family of Journals as well as a professor of chemistry at George Washington University.

Before joining the prestigious research and science journal family, Thorp served as provost at Washington University while holding faculty appointments in both chemistry and medicine. He had previously served as chancellor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for three decades.

Thorp earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, working with Harry B. Gray on inorganic photochemistry. He completed postdoctoral work at Yale University with Gary W. Brudvig, working on model compounds and reactions for the manganese cluster in the photosynthetic reaction center. During his research career, Thorp studied electron-transfer reactions of nucleic acids, developed technology for electronic DNA chips, and co-founded Viamet Pharmaceuticals, a North Carolina-based pharmaceutical product developer.

Thorp is co-author, with Buck Goldstein, of two books on higher education: “Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Twenty-First Century” and “Our Higher Calling: Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and its Colleges and Universities,” both from UNC Press. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.