David Thompson

Astrophysics Science Division
NASA/GSFC
Code 661, Astroparticle Physics Laboratory
Greenbelt, MD 20771

tel: 301-286-8168
fax: 301-286-1682
e-mail: David.J.Thompson @ nasa.gov

Present Position

Astrophysicist

Brief Bio

Astrophysicist, GSFC, 1973 -
Research Associate, University of Maryland, 1973

Educational Background

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

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

Research Interests

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 Gamma ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) team, a collaboration of particle physicists and astrophysicists working to build the next generation high-energy gamma ray telescope.

He is the leader of the team that built the Anticoincidence Detector for the Large Area Telescope on GLAST.

Current Projects

GLAST LAT ACD

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",
"A Guided Tour of the Universe",
"Exploding Stars, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes"

He is also chairs the Goddard Scientific Colloquium Committee.

Selected Publications

“Gamma ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Balloon Flight Engineering Model: Overview,” D. J. Thompson, G. Godfrey, S. Williams, J. E. Grove, T. Mizuno, H. F.-W. Sadrozinski, T. Kamae, J. Ampe, Stuart Briber, James Dann, E. do Couto e Silva, R. Dubois, Y. Fukazawa, B. Giebels, G. Haller, T. Handa, R. C. Hartman, K. Hirano, M. Hirayama, R. P. Johnson, W. N. Johnson, A. Kavelaars, H. Kelly, Steve Kliewer, T. Kotani, J. Krizmanic, W. Kroger, M. Kuss, D. Lauben, T. Linder, M. Lovellette, N. Lumb, Joe Manildi, P. Michelson, H. Mizushima, A. Moiseev, P.L. Nolan, S. Ogata, J. F. Ormes, M. Ozaki, G. Paliaga, B. Phlips, S. Ritz, L. S. Rochester, F. M. Roterman, W. A. Rowe, J. J. Russell, R. Schaefer, T. Schalk, D. Sheppard, S. Singh, M. Sjogren, G. Spandre, T. Usher, P. Valtersson, A. P. Waite, J. Wallace, A. Webster, and D. Wood, August, 2002, IEEE Trans. Nuclear Sci, 49, 1898-1903

"GLAST: GeV astronomy in a multiwavelength context." Thompson, D. J., April, 2004, New Astronomy Reviews, 48, 543-549.

"The Highest-Energy Photons Seen by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory" Thompson, D. J., Bertsch, D. L. and O'Neal, R. H., Jr., April 2005, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 157, 324-334