National Human Genome Research Institute | National Institutes of Health U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |
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Larry J. Thompson joined the National Human Genome Research Institute as chief of the Communications and Public Liaison Branch in February 2001, just as the NHGRI-led Human Genome Project published its first draft sequence and analysis of the human genome. His communications team manages media relations for the institute and creates a wide range of media and communications products, including press releases, background documents, brochures, graphic art and photographs, Web sites, webcasts, podcasts, multimedia presentations, and documentary productions distributed on videotape, CD-ROM and DVD. Mr. Thompson has worked as a journalist in a wide range of media, including newspapers, magazines, books and broadcast. He co-founded the Health section of The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., and founded the Science and Medicine Section of The San Jose Mercury News in San Jose, Calif., and served as the first medical editor of The Call-Chronicle Newspapers in Allentown, Pa. At Medical News Network in the mid-1990s, he served as the correspondent in the Washington, D.C. bureau covering biomedical research, and he was a regular panelist on the WETA-produced Science Journal, distributed on the Public Broadcasting Service in the late 1980s. He has written two books, including Correcting the Code: Inventing the Genetic Cure for the Human Body, a story about the first human gene therapy experiments, published by Simon & Schuster in 1994 and translated into three other languages. As a freelance writer, Mr. Thompson has contributed to TIME, Science and Discovery, among other magazines, and as a freelance producer, has been involved in numerous multimedia and television projects. He is coauthor of several scientific articles, including those appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association. As a consultant, he has provided services to several New York City public relations firms. Mr. Thompson has won numerous awards for writing and producing, including the Lewis Thomas Award for Excellence in Writing about the Life Sciences, The Associated Press's Mark Twain Award for outstanding news coverage and a Telly. His academic training includes an undergraduate degree in biology, a masters of science in molecular biology from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., and a master's of fine arts in film and electronic media from American University, Washington, D.C. Mr. Thompson also received a fellowship in public health at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. He is married and has four daughters and a sailboat.
Last Reviewed: March 24, 2009 |
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