OSU Community Members,
Please join me for University Day 2021 on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
University Day serves as a launch to the academic year and will include a powerful keynote address, a meaningful discussion on the future of higher education, prize drawings and recognition of amazing staff and faculty achievements. This year, university Day 2021 will be presented virtually to accommodate the greatest attendance since many faculty members will not yet have returned to campus. To register for the keynote session, please visit the University Day website.
We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Holden Thorp, a nationally known scientist, entrepreneur, and higher education thought leader, as this year’s University Day keynote speaker. His address will begin at 10:30 a.m. and be provided as a Zoom webinar. His keynote, entitled “Science, politics, and higher education: lessons from COVID-19”, will be followed by a panel discussion on the future of higher education.
In 2019, Dr. Thorp became editor-in-chief of the prestigious “Science” family of journals, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Thorp served as Washington University’s provost from 2013 to 2019, and now serves as a Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor, holding appointments in chemistry and medicine.
Dr. Thorp joined Washington University after spending three decades at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he served as the university’s 10th chancellor from 2008 through 2013. In his research career, he studied electron-transfer reactions of nucleic acids, developed technology for electronic DNA chips, and cofounded Viamet Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Thorp 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.
Dr. Thorp is the co-author 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. More information on his many accomplishments can be found here.
I look forward to celebrating University Day with you on Tuesday, Sept. 14, and getting the academic year off to a great start.
Sincerely,
Becky Johnson
Interim President