Thompson, William Bell, 1922-1995.
William Thompson papers, 1963-1995.
Primarily documentation of William Thompson's tenure as a professor of physics at UCSD from 1965 to 1990. The collection includes correspondence, research files, grant proposals and applications, course outlines and notes, and subject files. Major correspondents include Gustaf Arrhenius, Leopold Infeld, Homero Jimenez Dominguez, and Philip J. Morrison, one of Thompson's graduate students. In addition to correspondence, the collection also contains other materials about Leopold Infeld, Thompson's mentor who was persecuted by the Canadian government because of his leftist politics.
Professor of physics at UCSD, who was born in Northern Ireland and educated at the University of British Columbia (B.A. and M.A.) and the University of Toronto (Ph.D.). From 1950 to 1965, Thompson had a series of appointments in England at the Theoretical Physics Division at Harwell, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Culham Laboratory, and Oxford University where he was appointed Chair of Theoretical Plasma Physics. In 1965, Thompson was invited to join the Physics Dept. at UCSD. He remained at UCSD until his retirement in 1990, having served as the chair of the Physics Dept. from 1969 to1972. Thompson died while swimming at La Jolla Cove in 1995.
Arrhenius, Gustaf.
Dominguez, Homero Jimenez.
Infeld, Leopold, 1898-1968.
Morrison, Philip.
University of San Diego. Dept. of Physics.
University of San Diego -- Faculty.
University of San Diego -- History.
Physics -- Study and teaching.
Fusion.
Plasma dynamics.
Magnetohydrodynamics.
Diffusion.
Tethered satellites.
Physicists -- United States.
AIP-ICOS
University of California, San Diego. Mandeville Special Collections Library. 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA