Bonus: Chair Chats exclusive with Holden Thorp

Welcome to this is UIC, the official podcast of the University of Illinois, Chicago. I’m Grace Khachaturian, and with each episode, we delve into the stories that drive us to impact our most compelling questions as Chicago’s only public research university, UIC is leading the way to create and inspire a better world. This is UIC. 

Grace Khachaturian  00:24 

Today we’re joined with a very special guest, Dr. Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science Journals, a current Professor of Chemistry and medicine from George Washington University. Dr. Thorp, glad to have you here with us. 

Holden Thorp  00:36 

Thanks, Grace. It’s great to be here. 

Grace Khachaturian  00:38 

Welcome to Chicago. Welcome to UIC. To get started, I would love to get to know your story a little bit. Tell us about yourself.  

Holden Thorp  00:44 

Well, I was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is a pretty small town. My mom ran the community theater in my hometown for 50 years, and so that was kind of our family business. Everybody thought I would go into the theater, but I was a very bad actor. And when I was a relatively small child, my mom started explaining to me that I wasn’t going to be in the plays anymore, and so I had to learn to fix everything at the theater. And that kind of started me in the mindset of wanting to understand how things work. And so I had a great high school chemistry teacher, and I went on to be a scientist, and I’ve had three careers. I was a professor who did things professors do: teach and get grants. I was an administrator. I was the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the provost of Washington University in St. Louis. And then I’ve been a journal editor in my third career. 

Grace Khachaturian  01:43 

Okay, so help us understand your why, what past experience or story in your life has inspired what you’re currently doing? 

Holden Thorp  01:52 

Yeah, I mean, it really has to do with the great teachers that I’ve had in my career, my high school chemistry teacher, Bill Winfield, my undergraduate research advisor, Tom Meyer, my PhD advisor, Harry Gray, and my postdoc advisor, Gary Brudvig, and then all of the people who have taught me things about administration. All of this is about the people who’ve taught me things, and they’ve all inspired me that education is the most important thing that I do that drives me and so in all the careers that I’ve had, my focus has always been on the young people, either going to college or going to graduate school or now doing the work that we publish in our journals. Those folks are, are my North Star, and everything that I do starts with thinking about what’s best for them, and now, you know, that means what’s best for the graduate students who are at the bench doing the work that we’re publishing in the journals. 

Grace Khachaturian  02:55 

It’s cool to think the full circle moment that could have the impact that these teachers and professors had on your life, and now the impact that you’ll have on so many as well. Do you think there’s been a defining moment in your career that has most inspired your current work?  

Holden Thorp  03:09 

I think the moments that inspire me the most are when I see students go on to do some of the things that they wanted to do. Or people, now, whose lives are transformed because they got a paper in Science and that changed things for them. But I guess the most inspirational things are the students that I’ve had over the years, that we’ve lost. And I could go on about many of them, because when you’re a chancellor, and this is something the UIC Chancellor deals with that probably doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves: You know, taking care of the people who are here is very important. And so, when big things happen, like we lose a student, that the ability to be compassionate about that and lead people through that and tend to the feelings that they have, not only is that a way to remember how important these jobs are, but it’s also a way to remember how important the work is. 

Grace Khachaturian  04:13 

If you were to identify maybe a theme song that best represents your story, life, impact, which song would you pick? 

Holden Thorp  04:21 

Yeah. So my theme song is from a movie that hasn’t aged exactly perfectly, but it was very defining for me in the 1970s as a young person. And that’s “One Tin Soldier” from the movie “Billy Jack.” So Billy Jack was a guy who was a champion for marginalized people, Native Americans, that he was, had one parent from a tribe of students at a school, and he had unorthodox methods for defending them, most of which involved karate, but he was always standing up for the right things, and so that Billy Jack defined a lot of how I think about the world. 

Grace Khachaturian  05:13 

Very good. Well, thank you so much for your time here today and for being right here in Chicago on UIC’s campus. We’re glad to have you. 

Holden Thorp  05:19 

It’s wonderful to be here. Thanks so much. 

[MUSIC: “One Tin Soldier”]

Grace Khachaturian  05:33 

Learn more about Dr. Holden Thorp and his visit to campus in the show notes at today.uic.edu. And be sure to attend the next Chair Chats event as UIC brings well-known leaders and influential visionaries to campus.