[2][3] At the time of his selection as chancellor, Thorp was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Kenan Professor of chemistry at the university.
In September 2012, Thorp announced his intention to resign following allegations of academic fraud, effective from June 30, 2013, and to return to teaching in the chemistry department at UNC, following a scandal involving the NCAA.
[11][12] His mother, Olga "Bo" Thorp (née Bernardin, 1933—2022),[13][14] a 1956 UNC graduate, was a native of Columbia, South Carolina.
[3] In summer 1981, at age 17, while studying guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Thorp won first place and a $500 prize in a northeast regional competition to solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle.
He completed doctoral work in three years instead of the normal five at the California Institute of Technology in 1989, earning a Ph.D. under Harry B.
[23] In 1991, Thorp began teaching as an associate professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University.
[23][24] Later that year, he was one of 20 people awarded a grant by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the $500,000 fellowship was for research on compounds used in genetic therapy.
[23][24] In 1996, Thorp co-founded the biotechnology company Alderaan Diagnostics, later renamed Xanthon, Inc., to commercialize a technology he co-developed.
[25] Xanthon raised several rounds of venture capital, totaling $25 million, before closing in 2002, after technical glitches had delayed release of its commercial product and it could not find further funding.
[31] Thorp is a member of the scientific advisory board of Ohmx, a biotechnology firm based on technology developed by his doctoral mentor, Harry B.
[33][34] He gave up that role after being named chancellor of UNC in 2008, and his equity stake in the firm was transferred to a blind trust.
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.
[38] 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 a North Carolina native Timothy B.
[40] In 2013, Thorp resigned from the position of chancellor amid allegations of widespread academic fraud, which were later outlined in the Wainstein Report.
In 2024 Thorp revealed he has autism, using the announcement to make the case that the scientific community can benefit from better recognition and nurturing of individuals with the condition.