Richard F. Thompson

Biography

Richard F. Thompson was born in Portland, Oregon and received his B.A. in Psychology from Reed College. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and completed a 3-year post doctoral fellowship (National Institutes of Health) in Neurophysiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. He is currently the Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California, where he served as Director of the Neuroscience Program from 1989 to 2001.

Previous positions include assistant Professor to Professor of Medical Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Oregon School of Medicine; Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of California Irvine; Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University; and Bing Professor of Human Biology and Psychology, Stanford University. He spent a sabbatical in Neurophysiology at the School of Medicine, University of Gothenberg, Sweden in 1966.

In his research career, he has focused on brain substrates of learning and memory, beginning with his now classic studies with W. A. Spencer on habituation. In recent years, he has succeeded in identifying the essential neural circuits for a basic form of associative learning in the mammalian (including human) brain, developed very strong evidence for localization of the essential memory trace, and is focusing on the mechanisms of memory storage.

Thompson was President of the American Psychological Society (1995-1996), and President of the Western Psychological Association (1994-1995). He has served on a number of advisory committees and boards for the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council, including the Commission on Behavioral and Social Science and Education; the National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. He served as Chair, Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society; Chair of Section J of American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Chair of Section 52 of National Academy of Sciences; Chair, Board of Scientific Affairs; Chair of the Scientific Awards Committee; and Chair of the Committee on Animal Research and Experimentation of the American Psychological Association; Chair; Troland Research Awards Committee of the National Academy of Sciences; and Chair, Warren Medal Committee, Society of Experimental Psychologists. He recently served on the External Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen and the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science, and he is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the National Academies' Corporation.

Thompson has received a number of honors and awards, including election to the National Academy of Science (1976), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1989), and the American Philosophical Society (1999). He held a Research Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Mental Health. He was elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1973), who awarded him the Warren Medal (1989); the American Psychological Association granted him the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (1974); he was elected a fellow of AAAS (1977), fellow Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford) (1978-1979), elected a William James fellow of the American Psychological Society (1989), given the John P. McGovern Award from the AAAS (1999), and the D.G. Marquis Behavioral Neuroscience Award (1999).

He was appointed to the National Science Board in 2006.

August 2006