Biography

After graduating from MU with a PhD in Nuclear Engineering in 1988, Tompson served as a postdoc at the University of Kentucky (Lexington) and at MU until September 1989 when he became a research assistant professor in the MU Nuclear Engineering Program. In September 1991, he became a tenure track assistant professor in the nuclear engineering program at MU and was tenured and promoted to associate professor in the nuclear engineering program (later changed to the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute) in September 1997. Finally, he was promoted to professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute in September 2011. He went to the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in September 2014. During his tenure at MU, Tompson has been a continuous member of the Graduate Faculty since January 1991 and a continuous member of the Doctoral Faculty since January 1992. At various other times he has served as a faculty supervisor for undergraduate research as part of NSFREU grants for eight years, has been a research fellow for NASA at its Langley facility, has been on sabbatical as PI on a $1.5M grant to U.S. Semiconductor for the development of sensors to detect IED’s. Additionally while at MU, Tompson was the associate director of the Particulate Systems Research Center in which he was also the group leader for experimental aerosol mechanics and rarefied gas dynamics research as well as for biomedical research.