Dr. David J. Thompson NASA/GSFC, Code 661  Greenbelt, MD 20771   Phone: (301) 286-8168  FAX: (301) 286-1682  E-mail: djt@egret.gsfc.nasa.gov

Astrophysicist, Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics (LHEA), NASA/GSFC

EDUCATION:

B.A., Physics, Johns Hopkins University, 1967

Ph.D., Physics, University of Maryland, 1973

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE:

Dave Thompson's research spans all areas of astrophysics related to high-energy gamma rays. His early work used a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope to study gamma rays produced by cosmic ray interactions in the Earth's upper atmosphere. In 1972, with the launch of the SAS-2 gamma-ray telescope, he began studying cosmic sources of high-energy gamma rays, especially diffuse Galactic radiation and gamma-ray pulsars.

In the mid-1970's, the Goddard Gamma Ray Astrophysics Branch joined with Stanford University, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrrestrial Physics, and Grumman Aerospace Corporation to start a new telescope, the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET). Dave Thompson's contributions included building and flying a balloon prototype of EGRET, helping design the gas refill and thermal systems, and heading the calibration team.

When EGRET on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis on April 5, 1991, his emphasis shifted back to astrophysics. He has been involved in high-energy studies of pulsars, blazars, gamma-ray bursts, diffuse radiation, and unidentified sources.

Looking ahead to the future, he is involved with the GLAST team, a collaboration of particle physicists and astrophysicists working to build the next generation high-energy gamma ray telescope.

OTHER GODDARD ACTIVITIES:

Dave Thompson is a member of the Goddard Speakers' Bureau. His available topics are
"Viewing the Violent Universe: The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory" and
"A Guided Tour of the Universe"

 He is also chairs the Goddard Scientific Colloquium Committee

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

"Discovery of a New Population of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources in the Milky Way," Gehrels, N., Macomb, D.J., Bertsch, D.L., Thompson, D.J., Hartman, R.C., 2000 March 23, Nature, 404, 363-365

"High Energy Emission from Active Pulsars", Thompson, D.J., 2000 January, Adv. Sp. Res,. 25, 659-668

"Studying the High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sky with GLAST",  Kamae, T., Ohsugi, T.,  Thompson, D.J. and Watanabe, K. (on behalf of the GLAST Collaboration), 2000 January, Adv. Sp. Res., 25, 905 -910

"The Third EGRET Catalog of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources," Hartman, R.C.,  Bertsch, D.L., Bloom, S.D., Chen,
A.W., Deines-Jones, P., Esposito, J.A., Fichtel, C.E., Friedlander, D.P.,  Hunter, S.D., McDonald, L.M.,  Sreekumar, P.,
Thompson, D.J., Jones, B.B., Lin, Y.C., Michelson, P.F., Nolan, P.L., Tompkins, W.F., Kanbach, G., Mayer-Hasselwander,
H.A., Muecke, A., Reimer, O., Kniffen, D.A., Schneid, E.J., von Montigny, C., Mukherjee, R., Dingus, B.L., 1999 Jul.,
ApJS, 123, 79-202

"Gamma Radiation from PSR B1055-52,"  Thompson, D. J., Bailes, M., Bertsch, D. L., Cordes, J., D'Amico, N.,  Esposito, J. A., Finley, J., Hartman, R. C., Hermsen, W., Kanbach, G., Kaspi, V. M., Kniffen, D. A., Kuiper, L., Lin, Y. C., Lyne, A., Manchester, R., Matz, S. M., Mayer-Hasselwander, H. A.,  Michelson, P. F., Nolan, P. L., Ögelman, H., Pohl, M.,  Ramanamurthy, P. V., Sreekumar, P., Reimer, O., Taylor, J. H. and Ulmer, M. 1999 May 1, ApJ, 516, 297-306
 

Full CV