Dr. Thompson is Director of the Advanced Magnetic Recording Laboratory at IBM Almaden Research Center.

He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degreed in Electrical Engineering from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA, in 1962, 1963, and 1966, respectively. Dr. Thompson is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. He became an IBM Fellow in 1980, and in 1992 he received the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award, "for pioneering work in miniature magnetic devices for data storage…." In 1993 he was awarded the Inventor of the Year award by the New York State Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law Association, Inc., for his contributions to magnetic data storage technology.

Dr. Thompson was induced into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame in 1996 for his pioneering in the design and development of thin film magnetic head technology for use in high-density data storage.