12WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG MAY 19, 2008

H.HOLDEN THORP, chemistry professor and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has

been elected as that university’s next chancellor. He will assume his new position on July 1.

Thorp, 43, has quickly as-cended the administrative ranks at UNC Chapel Hill. In 2005, he was named chair of the chemistry department. Two years later, he became dean of the College of Arts & Sciences after a national search. After only a year in that position, he prepares to step into the top job on campus.

“I’m having a hard time holding down a job,” Thorp jokes. “I would have loved to have had more time as dean,

but this is when we were having a chancellor search. Now I’m hoping we won’t have another chancellor search for a really long time.”

His chemistry colleagues applaud his election as chancellor. “Holden Thorp has the vision, energy, intel-lect, and compassion to be an outstanding leader of our university,” says Michael T. Crimmins, chemistry department chair. “We are excited about having a chan-cellor who understands the importance of science in the 21st century and its potential economic impact on the university and the state.”

A native of Fayetteville, N.C., Thorp has a long his-tory with the university, dating back to his undergradu-ate years. He graduated in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He then earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1989 from California Institute of Technology, where he worked with Harry B. Gray. After postdoctoral work at Yale and a short stint as an assistant professor of chem-istry at North Carolina State University, Thorp re-turned to UNC Chapel Hill as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1993. His research has focused on biologi-cal applications of transition-metal electrochemistry.

Thorp is the fifth former member of Gray’s group to have become a university chancellor or president. “I knew Holden was going places, but his rise to the top has been even faster than I thought it would be,” Gray says. “He has a wonderful sense of humor, which he will need as chancellor, and his imagination knows no bounds.”—CELIA ARNAUD

FOR HIS PIONEERING WORK on nucleic acids, Alexander Rich, a professor of biophysics at MIT, has won the 2008 Welch Award in Chemistry.

The $300,000 award is given annually by Houston’s Welch Foundation to foster and encourage basic chemical research that ben-efits humankind.

A student of Linus Pauling’s and a contem-porary of James Watson and Francis Crick’s,Rich has devoted his entire career to studying DNA and RNA. In 1979, he and his colleagues discovered left-handed DNA, which they named Z-DNA for its zigzag backbone. Since then, Rich’s research has focused on Z-DNA’s importance in biological systems.

In addition, Rich discovered and solved the three-dimensional structure of the RNA double helix. He was the first scientist to carry out DNA-RNA hybridization and to discover DNA’s presence in or-

ganelles. He also discovered polyribosomes, which are clusters of ribosomes attached to messenger RNA, and determined the three-dimensional structure of trans-fer RNA.

Rich is known for his enthusiasm for science. “When I called him up to tell him about the award, I couldn’t get around to telling him because he was so eager to tell me about some new results he had found in his labora-tory,” says James L. Kinsey, chairman of the Welch Sci-entific Advisory Board.

At age 83, Rich is still active in research. One of his goals is to develop a small-molecule drug to block a

Z-DNA-binding protein from exerting its role in pox virus pathogenesis, potentially treating smallpox and combating bioter-rorism. “It is very satisfying to see the Z-DNA discovery made so long ago now playing an important role in biological sys-tems,” he says.

Rich’s former students say he is also a great teacher. “He gives his students and colleagues a great deal of freedom in car-rying out their research in his laboratory,” says Andrew H.-J. Wang, who codiscovered Z-DNA in 1979 and is now vice president of

Academia Sinica in Taiwan. “He provides an interdisci-plinary research environment where interesting ideas can emerge from any corner.”—LINDA WANG

NEWS OF THE WEEK

Thorp

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ALEXANDER RICH WINS WELCH AWARD

HONOR: MIT professor is recognized for his lifelong work on DNA and RNA

CHEMIST WINS TOP JOB AT UNC

ACADEMIA: Holden Thorp will be Chapel Hill’s 10th chancellor

Rich

MIT