CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A professor and administrator who grew up in North Carolina was chosen Thursday to be chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The school's Board of Governors named Holden Thorp, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for the past year, to the position after his nomination a few minutes earlier by UNC system President Erskine Bowles.

Thorp will take over the post July 1 and replace James Moeser, who announced in September he would step down as chancellor to take a year's research leave. Moeser will return to campus as a professor.

Thorp, 43, is a North Carolina native who graduated the university in 1986 and has spent most of his career there, including a stint as chairman of the chemistry department and as head of the Morehead Planetarium.

"Holden Thorp is as true blue a Tar Heel as they come," Bowles said while nominating Thorp during a board meeting.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education's most recent survey of college and university presidents, just 6.4 percent reported their age as 49 or younger.

"These are challenging times, I know," Thorp said after he was elected. "North Carolina, in spite of the difficulties we face, promises a great future. Why? Because the idea of a research university, a place where research and teaching are done by the same people, is a bold and audacious idea.

Thorp said the university faces challenges but promises a great future, "because the idea of a research university, a place where research and teaching are done by the same people, is a bold and audacious idea.

"There's one idea that's better than a research university and that's a public research university."