User:Pbrenton/Theos J. Thompson

Theos Jardin Thompson (30 August 1918 in Lincoln, Nebraska &mdash; 25 November 1970 in Lake Mead, Nevada) was a professor of nuclear engineering at MIT. From 1955 to 1969, Appointed as a Commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1969.

Theos “Tommy” Thompson Was a professor at MIT, first in Chemical Engineering, then in the new Department of Nuclear Engineering, from 1955 to 1969. He designed MIT’s 5 megawatt nuclear research reactor, which was used to educate thousands of nuclear engineers, win a nobel prize for fellow professor Clifford Schull, and conduct research on a variety of topics from cancer therapy to pollution studies.

Thompson was born in Lincoln Nebraska in 1918, earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1941 and Master’s degree in chemistry in 1942, both at the University of Nebraska. He entered US military service in 1942, working with the Chemical Weapons Service and eventually rising to the rank of Major. In 1946 he returned to school, earning a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering in 1952 from the University of California, Berkeley, incidentally following his father’s footsteps. He then joined the Los Alamos research staff and helped with the design of the Omega West Reactor (OMR), an 8 Megawatt research reactor. He was awarded the Earnest O. Lawrence award in 1964 for his work at Los Alamos. The Omega West Reactor was used for weapons research initially, but by the time its 36-year life was over, OMR had advanced research on neutron radiography, neutron capture studies, gamma ray studies, neutron cross section measurements and neutron activation studies.

In 1955 Thompson was hired by Manson Benedict to design, build and operate a 5 megawatt reactor at MIT to conduct research and educate a new generation of nuclear engineers on the design and operation of fission reactors. The MIT Reactor (MITR) continues in service to this day, through one major redesign, and has been used for an enormous variety of purposes. Engineers have commented on its flexibility, the high flux rate that makes it unique among university reactors, and the extremely safe design. Thompson was among the founding professors in the newly formed Department of Nuclear Engineering in 1958. During that time he authored a landmark study on the safety of reactor technology, wrote a seminal textbook on reactor control, and led over 40 students to their graduate degrees in nuclear engineering. He was again called to serve the U.S. Government as a Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1969.

Tragically, Thompson died while serving as a commissioner, surveying Lake Mead in a small plane in connection with a nearby weapons testing facility in 1970.

Tommy Thompson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, and served as Director of the American Nuclear Society. He advised over 40 students in his ten years as a professor, who went on to become leaders in the nuclear power industry.