Rebecca Caroline Thompson is an American physicist, popular science writer, and head of the Office of Education and Public Outreach at

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...

. Her first book, ''Fire, Ice, and Physics'', explores the science of ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

'', and was published by

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

in 2019. She was elected Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

in 2016.

Early life and education

Thompson was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and raised near

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

. Her father was a physicist and her mother a high school principal. Thompson was encouraged by one of her friends to take a class in physics, and enjoyed it so much she decided to study it at university. She was the youngest person in Delaware to get her skydiving license. Thompson majored in physics at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

. She moved to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

for her graduate studies, where she studied pattern formation in buckled membranes using computational modeling. She worked under the supervision of Michael Marder in the Centre for Nonlinear Dynamics. Specifically, she looked at the morphology of nano-flowers that form at the tip of silicon nanowires as well as the formation of ripples in sheets of graphene. The silicon nanowire tips form nano-flowers when in the presence of different gases. In the nano-flower formation process, the nanowires extend, and intricate patterns of

silicon oxide Silicon oxide may refer to either of the following: *Silicon dioxide or quartz, SiO2, very well characterized *Silicon monoxide Silicon monoxide is the chemical compound with the formula SiO where silicon is present in the oxidation state +2. In ...

start to form. She has shown that the nanowires extend more in the presence of gold, and that nano-flowers only form in the presence of oxygen. She reported that ripples in graphene sheets can be understood by considering the adsorption of

hydroxide Hydroxide is a diatomic anion with chemical formula OH−. It consists of an oxygen and hydrogen atom held together by a single covalent bond, and carries a negative electric charge. It is an important but usually minor constituent of water. I ...

molecules in random sites across the graphene layers. The process of adsorbing hydroxide causes the carbon – carbon bonds to extend, which can result in static buckling. During her graduate studies, she became more interested in teaching and doing physics outreach.

Career

In 2008, Thompson joined the

as Head of Public Outreach. At APS, Thompson created the comic series ''Spectra: The Original Laser Superhero''. The series, illustrated by Kerry G. Johnson and published by Physics Central, followed a middle school student (Lucy Hene) with laser-related superpowers. These included being able to pass through transparent surfaces, change colors depending on her levels of energy and play

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

s. The comic book was popular amongst physicist and comic book readers, and was part of the annual comic book convention San Diego Comi-Con'. Thompson was elected Fellow of the

in 2016. Thompson is a fan of ''

'', and wrote ''Fire, Ice, and Physics'', the Science of Game of Thrones for

in 2019. In 2019 Thompson joined

as Head of the Office of Education and Public Outreach.

Selected publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Rebecca Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American physicists American women physicists Bryn Mawr College alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni People associated with Fermilab Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American women