Laird A. Thompson (born 6 September 1947), is a professor emeritus of

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. Thompson graduated with a B.A. in both

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and astronomy from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1969. He received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in 1974. He is professionally associated with the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

, the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the

International Society for Optical Engineering SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

, and has served as an adjunct member of the Center for Adaptive Optics.

Work in Astronomy

From 1974 to 1987, Thompson worked in extragalactic astronomy and he concentrated on clusters of

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

, galaxy morphology, and galaxy redshift surveys. In 1978, along with Stephen Gregory, he discovered

voids Void may refer to: Science, engineering, and technology * Void (astronomy), the spaces between galaxy filaments that contain no galaxies * Void (composites), a pore that remains unoccupied in a composite material * Void, synonym for vacuum, a s ...

.Freedman, R.A., & Kaufmann III, W.J. (2008). Stars and galaxies: Universe. New York City: W.H. Freeman and Company. In the early 1980s, he began to work on projects aimed at improving the image quality at ground-based telescopes. His first instrument was a microprocessor controlled tip-tilt system called

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

which was built at the Institute for Astronomy for use at the Mauna Kea Observatory in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. From 1990 to present, Thompson has worked in adaptive optics.

References

External links

Professor Thompson's Official UIUC Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Laird A. 1947 births American astronomers University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Arizona alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Living people