Thorp installed as Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor
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Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton (right) and H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Washington University in St. Louis, enjoy a light moment following Thorp’s formal installation as the inaugural holder of the Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professorship. The installation ceremony, which was held Oct. 14 in Knight Hall’s Emerson Auditorium, included an address by Thorp. In his address, titled “Back to the Future: Accomplishment and Aspiration at Washington University,” Thorp outlined his plan to help Wash U remain focused on promoting opportunity and originality. “The reason why I work in higher education is that I believe that universities are the greatest engines for opportunity in American history and by far the best environments for bringing together the people and original ideas needed to solve the world’s greatest problems,” Thorp said. “We need to be vigilant that in trying to do many of the other things that the world wants from us that we don’t lose focus on these two things that we can do better than any other kind of institution.” Thorp holds academic appointments in both the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences and in the School of Medicine. Levi-Montalcini, PhD, was a Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist who performed the majority of her research at Washington University from 1947-1977. To read Thorp’s address, visit his blog. (Credit: Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photos)
