CHAPEL HILL - Holden Thorp's life changed forever at the Exxon station on Wendover Avenue in Greensboro, where UNC President Erskine Bowles, with one hand on the gas nozzle, leaned in the car and asked him to be the next chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"It's a good thing I didn't run in to get some Nabs," said Thorp, who was officially elected the university's 10th chancellor Thursday.

The quirky nature of the job offer was fitting for a man who is at once a top-flight chemist and a keyboardist for a Chapel Hill jazz band called Equinox. Thorp has won teaching awards, written 130 research papers and invented technology for 19 issued or pending U.S. patents.

He also has a deadpan wit and an easy way with people. On Thursday, he charmed a cheering audience of faculty, staff and students with stories about how his dad used to sing him to sleep with "Hark the Sound," the Tar Heel alma mater. He quoted James Taylor lyrics and mused about the sweet swish of a basketball through the hoop.

"I'm so grateful for the opportunity to lead the best university in the world," he said.

He will start the job July 1 at an annual salary of $420,000. He succeeds James Moeser, who is stepping down this summer after eight years on the job.

Thorp, 43, is a Fayetteville native, a 1986 graduate of the university, and a member of its faculty since 1993. He has spent the bulk of his career climbing the academic ladder -- chemistry professor, chairman of the acclaimed chemistry department, director of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, and last year, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

He has never run a university, and his hiring is a significant departure from the way the state's most competitive public institution has traditionally chosen its leaders. Thorp will replace Moeser, who headed the University of Nebraska before coming to Chapel Hill. Moeser's predecessor was Michael Hooker, who had led the University of Massachusetts.

Thorp's inexperience at the top may be trumped by his ambition, energy and entrepreneurial talent, which led him to co-found a drug company in 2005. His North Carolina roots were also a plus, Bowles said.

"Holden Thorp is about as true blue a Tar Heel as they come," Bowles said. "I am personally thrilled that we will have a chancellor who is a North Carolina native, a proud alumnus and a proven campus leader. ... He fully understands and appreciates the deep-rooted connection between Carolina and the people of North Carolina."

Long tenure possible

Thorp's age could mean that he will have a long tenure and a lasting impact on the nation's oldest state university. He will guide the campus through a period of expected enrollment growth and a faculty hiring spree as the baby boomers retire. And he will lead the development of a planned satellite research campus known as Carolina North.

Judith Wegner, a law professor and former law dean, described Thorp as a superb academic and a scientist who is not holed up in a lab but has a broad appreciation of the arts and humanities. He's at home talking about the properties of DNA or a trip to Disney with his wife and children.

"He's got a very inquiring mind and a real sense of balance as a human being," Wegner said.

In his acceptance speech Thursday before the UNC Board of Governors, Thorp pledged to keep the university rooted to the people of North Carolina and education affordable to all of its citizens. He also rattled off audacious goals for a public research university in the 21st century.

"Our to-do list is nothing less than the greatest problems of our time: Cure diseases, and get those cures to all the people who need them. Find and invent clean energy. Inspire students in our public schools. Feed 7 billion people. Describe the world, and replace conflict with understanding."

The job will also be a labor of love for Thorp, who first interviewed for the position on Valentine's Day. When he walked out of the room, a member of the university's search committee had one conclusion: rock star.

Moeser prefers another term. "Supernova," he said Thursday.

Moeser's mentoring

When Moeser came to town eight years ago, former UNC President William Friday told him to keep a close eye on Thorp, who Friday was sure was destined for great things. Moeser, impressed, has spent the last eight years heaping task after task onto Thorp's plate.

"I had figured out long ago that Holden Thorp would be a chancellor of this university," Moeser said. "I sensed that level of potential in him."

In 2001, he was part of a faculty delegation that traveled to Qatar when the university was considering establishing a branch campus in that Middle Eastern nation. That same year, Thorp became head of the Morehead Planetarium, converting it to an interactive science center and increasing attendance 40 percent. In 2004, Thorp led the university's summer reading book selection committee, a controversial task in the wake of its 2002 selection, a book examining Islam.

Never a disappointment

Thorp never disappointed in any role thrown at him, Moeser said.

The newly appointed chancellor joked about his habit of changing course during his time at UNC-CH.

"I seem to be having a problem holding down a job," he said. "It's a little intoxicating to rise this fast, but it's also exciting to have enough runway to think about what I might accomplish with the university."