Science editor-in-chief discusses state of US research during UIC visit 

As editor-in-chief of the journal Science and a distinguished figure in higher education, Holden Thorp has strong opinions about the outlook for research in the United States. 

Even though research is facing trials, both in funding and public support, Thorp remains inspired by visits to institutions like UIC, he said during a UIC Chair Chat on April 23 at Moss Auditorium in the College of Medicine. The Chair Chats series, which featured  Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2024 and Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski in April, brings leaders and visionaries to UIC to discuss ideas and critical issues.  

“I’m inspired by coming to places like this that are doing the real work of higher education and science,” Thorp said. “I think if more people in roles like mine came to places like this … a lot of the challenges that we have would be ameliorated.”  

The wide-ranging conversation, introduced by UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda and moderated by UIC School of Public Health Dean Wayne Giles, was one of several events marking UIC Research Week, held April 21-April 25. 

“Over the years, Dr. Thorp has taken on several roles shaping how we think about science and its place in this world,” Miranda said.  

Thorp is a professor at George Washington University and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Inventors. He previously held leadership positions at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   

Giles began the conversation by asking Thorp about his childhood in Fayetteville, North Carolina. There, his mother started a community theater where Thorp often helped out backstage. “My job was to fix everything that got broken,” he said. “That kind of started my life of tinkering with things.”  

That inquisitiveness led Thorp to study chemistry and become a research scientist. 

“I still get very excited when I start explaining how (Russian chemist Dmitri) Mendeleev worked out the periodic table by just burning a bunch of stuff away. To me, that’s about as cool a story as you can tell,” Thorp said.  

Thorp implored his fellow scientists to demonstrate their enthusiasm for their work to their students and trainees, especially now. 

Part of the conversation focused on the impact of recent cuts to federal funding for science and research programs and federal workforces. Thorp’s advice to scientists in uncertain times? Focus on their work. “It is now an act of resistance and rebellion to do our research, because there are people who are trying to stop us.”  

Though science still enjoys very high levels of public trust, scientists need to be much more conversational with the general public, Thorp suggested. “The public perceives that most scientists are talking down to them,” he said. 

Another shortcoming is failing to teach people, including students, how science works. Researchers are constantly revising or updating what constitutes accepted knowledge, he said. “The best way to get a paper in Science is to demonstrate that something that we thought for a long time isn’t true anymore and that we’ve come up with something new.”  

Giles asked about Thorp’s 2024 disclosure that he had been diagnosed with autism as an adult. The response from colleagues, students and neurodiversity advocates has been “amazing,” Thorp said. “It’s been one of the best things I ever did in my life.” 

Giles and Thorp also discussed a question Thorp posed to a group of scientific leaders at the 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting: “Who is a scientist?”  

“I didn’t realize that was a controversial question when I asked it,” Thorp said. “We have a cultural problem in science where we decided that if you’re doing research, especially basic research, that you have some better status than everybody else that’s in science.” Educators, communicators and policy consultants all have a vital place in science in addition to researchers at the bench, Thorp continued. 

Thorp’s work outside of the lab has included raising venture capital and cofounding Viamet Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company that developed yeast infection drug VIVJOA. But early efforts were, in his words, “a complete bust, financially.”  

That experience taught him that entrepreneurial success can’t ride on the success of the science alone. “Every scientist has a tendency to think, ‘Oh, my science works. The rest will take care of itself,’” he said.

Despite the challenges U.S. science is facing, Thorp expressed optimism and again emphasized the need for scientists to remain resilient and focused on their work. “It’s painful what we’re going through,” he said. “But in three or four years, are we still going to be doing science and doing our thing? Yeah, somehow.”