Mark Thomson (physicist)

Mark Thomson
Born	Mark Andrew Thomson [1] (1966-04-28) April 28, 1966 (age 59) United Kingdom
Education	Worthing Sixth Form College [2]
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Scientific career
Fields	Particle physics
Institutions	CERN Science and Technology Facilities Council University of Cambridge Fermilab
Thesis	An experimental study of the possible association of deep underground muons with astronomical point sources  (1991)
Doctoral advisor	John Henry Cobb [1]
Website	www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/~thomson/

Mark Andrew Thomson (born 28 April 1966) is a British particle physicist. He is a Professor of Experimental Particle Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. From January 2018 to December 2024, he was the Executive Chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, one of the nine councils of UK Research and Innovation. ^{[3] [4]} Thomson was a delegate of the United Kingdom to the CERN Council, ^[5] the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) ^[6] and European Spallation Source ERIC (ESS). ^[7] Thomson was appointed director-general of CERN on 1 January 2026. ^{[8] [9]}

Education

Thomson was educated at Worthing Sixth Form College where he completed A-levels in Mathematics, Further mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. ^[2] Thomson completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics in 1988 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1991 on Experimental Physics at the University of Oxford supervised by John Henry Cobb. ^{[1] [4] [2] [10]}

Research and career

From 1992 to 1994, Thomson was a postdoctoral research fellow in the High Energy Physics group at University College London. In 1994, he joined CERN firstly as a fellow and then as a staff research physicist where he worked on the OPAL experiment. Since 2000, Thomson has worked at the University of Cambridge as a Lecturer (2000–2004), Reader (2004–2008) and Professor of Experimental Particle Physics (2008–present). ^[4]

From 2015 to 2018, Thomson was the co-leader and co-spokesperson for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the United States. ^[11] Thomson also worked on MicroBooNE ^[12] and the MINOS ^[13] experiments.

Publications

Thomson is the author or co-author of more than 1100 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals covering a number of major areas in High Energy Particle Physics. ^[14] His main research interests are in electron-positron collider physics, neutrino physics and the development of novel and powerful reconstruction techniques for cutting edge detector technologies. In addition to his research activities, he is the author of the textbook "Modern Particle Physics". ^[15]

References

1. Thomson, Mark Andrew (1991). An experimental study of the possible association of deep underground muons with astronomical point sources. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC   863481031.
2. Thomson, Mark (2017). "Professor Mark Thomson CV" (PDF). cam.ac.uk.
3. "New STFC Executive Chair announced - Science and Technology Facilities Council". stfc.ac.uk. 22 January 2018.
4. "Mark Thomson's Home Page". hep.phy.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
5. "Council - Composition as from January 2024".
6. "UK to build software brain for giant radio telescope".
7. "Governance".
8. Castelvecchi, Davide (7 November 2024). "New CERN chief pledges to forge ahead with $17-billion supercollider" . Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03666-x. ISSN   0028-0836.
9. "CERN Council selects Mark Thomson as next Director-General, starting in 2026".
10. "John Henry Cobb (1968 BA DPhil Physics) died on 29 July 2024 aged 75 after a short Illness". keble.ox.ac.uk. University of Oxford.
11. Butterworth, Jon (24 September 2017). "UK invests £65m in Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in US". theguardian.com. The Guardian.
12. "Neutrino estéril: el experimento fallido que abre un nuevo capítulo en la búsqueda del origen del universo". BBC News Mundo.
13. Thomson, Mark (2017). "A Personal Journey from MINOS to DUNE". Fermilab at 50. pp. 96–98. doi:10.1142/9789813227460_0028. ISBN   978-981-322-745-3.
14. "Mark Andrew Thomson".
15. Thomson, Mark (2013). Modern Particle Physics. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139525367. ISBN   978-1-107-03426-6.