Holden Thorp will step down from his current position as provost of Washington University on July 15.

Thorp served in his position for six years after previously serving as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2008 to 2013.

Thorp will take a year-long sabbatical before returning to the University in a new leadership position in the drug discovery and innovation space.

“I’ve been doing these university administration jobs now for 18 years, and that’s a long time to be dealing with a lot of the issues that we’ve been dealing with, so I let [Chancellor-elect Andrew Martin] know that my next step would be to take a sabbatical,” Thorp said. “Over the course of the [Spring 2019] semester, we came to the conclusion that it was a good thing for me and I think for the University as well for me to go ahead and do that.”

Thorp detailed some of the issues that administrations at many universities are facing nationwide, citing the mental health of students, questions from the community about higher education and building enthusiasm behind certain fields of study like the sciences.

“[Those are] lots of things that I’ve been dealing with for 18 years. I’m just ready to take a break from those things for a while,” Thorp said.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori White said that Thorp’s leadership during his tenure was instrumental in improving the student experience at the University.

“It was wonderful to see him involved in so many other aspects of the University outside of his administrative responsibilities—teaching a course on higher education leadership; playing with the Wash. U. Pep Band and for Arts performances; serving as my accompanist when I sang at various events on campus,” White wrote in a statement to Student Life. “He is also one of the smartest people I know, a talented scientist and musician and has a wonderful sense of humor—he has been wonderful to work with.”

In his new role, Thorp will work to explain the process of how the field of medicine advances while also working to advance the undergraduate and medical schools by including them in the process.

“I think innovation and entrepreneurship will always be an important thing for universities because when we realize the impact of our scholarship, it makes it easy to tell the story of the university and also, of course, helps people’s lives as well,” Thorp said. “I think enriching our undergraduate program in new ways are things that [Chancellor Martin] will be focused on.”

Thorp spoke highly of his experiences at the University during his tenure as provost. He said Martin has not said anything to him about who his successor might be.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of this job, especially working with Mark Wrighton, he was as good a boss and mentor as you could expect,” Thorp said. “[My best memory] was definitely playing for Rocky Horror and having my daughter do the Time Warp tap dance.”