Robert Ian Thompson
Positions
AVP (Research)
Research Services Office
Contact information
Web presence
Phone number
Office: +1 (403) 220-5407
Location
Office: SB501
Background
Educational Background
PhD Laser Physics, University of Toronto, 1994
BSc (Hons) Physics, University of British Columbia, 1987
Biography
Dr. Thompson joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an Assistant Professor in September 1998. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and served as the Chair of the Department’s Graduate Program from 2003 through 2007. Dr. Thompson is currently the Assistant Head and Undergraduate Program Director for the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Externally, he is the Chair of the Division of Physics Education of the Canadian Association of Physicists, as well as serving as Secretary-Treasurer of the Division of Atomic & Molecular Physics and Photon Interactions of the Canadian Association of Physicists. In 2007, he was awarded the CAP Medal for Excellence in Teaching, which is the pre-eminent award in Canada for post-secondary educators in physics.
After completing his Ph.D. in Laser Physics, studying coherence effects in the nonlinear generation of short wavelength radiation, Dr. Thompson went to Munich, Germany, where he spent 2.5 years as a Staff Scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Quantenoptik, learning about ion trapping and studying metallofullerenes. Later he worked at Rice University in Houston, Texas, as a research associate in the Infrared Kinetic Spectroscopy lab for one year, where lasers were used to study the kinetics of combustion related processes.
Research
Areas of Research
- Studies of gas phase systems at low densities and low temperatures, which are carried out in ion traps, supersonic jets, and eventually neutral atom traps.
- A member of the ALPHA Collaboration from its early days, Dr. Thompson and his group are actively involved in this international effort aimed at generating, trapping, and eventually spectroscopically studying antihydrogen to test the foundations of physics.
- Recent, present, or near-future projects include trapping, laser cooling and sympathetic cooling of ions, mass spectrometry of trapped ions, ion processes in conventional and novel trapping field geometries, and studies of stable and unstable ionic isotopes.
- Although initially focused on experimental work, his group's efforts now include active computational and theoretical work in cold atom physics.
- He and his group are currently extensively in a collaborative research effort at the University of Calgary to investigate the physics of ice-metal interfaces as it pertains to sliding sports such as bobsleigh.
Research Affiliations:
- Faculty Member, Quantum Optics Research Group, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Calgary
- Affiliated Faculty Member, Institute for Quantum Information Science, University of Calgary
- Registered User, TRIUMF National Laboratory, Vancouver BC, Canada
- Registered User, CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research
- Member, Anti-hydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus (ALPHA) Collaboration
- Member, TRIUMF Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science (TITAN) Collaboration
Awards
- Outstanding Speaker Award, 2015
- NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, 2014
- Physics World #1 Breakthrough of 2010, 2010
- Member, University of Calgary Great Teachers Website, 2005
- Member, University of Calgary Great Teachers Website, 2004
- University of Calgary Student Union Teaching Excellence Award, 2004
Publications
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