Matthew Thompson is Director of Systems Engineering at Zap Energy Inc. He is also a past Chair of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Committee on Careers and Professional Development and current Chair of the APS Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics. He has personally mentored dozens of STEM students on professional issues, made career-oriented speaking appearances at places like Stanford University, co-founded a major mentoring program called IMPact (impact.aps.org), and written about career issues for physical scientists for over five years on his website (prosperousphysicist.com).
Dr. Thompson completed a bachelor’s degree with honors in physics from Stanford University and both an MS and a PhD in experimental plasma physics from the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating, he made a difficult transition off the academic career path, first to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and then to private industry. These experiences inspired him to help others on similar journeys. Dr. Thompson transitioned to private industry 14 years ago with his first Senior Scientist position at Tri Alpha Energy, working on energy conversion and magnetic sensor technologies. He rose through the ranks to become Director of Physics at TAE Technologies, Inc., a diversified company working on nuclear fusion, related power handling and particle accelerator technologies, and new medical devices for cancer treatment. He led the 50 scientists and technical personnel of TAE’s Physics Division in their work on experimental operations, pulsed power systems, high-power neutral beams, plasma diagnostics, data acquisition, analysis, and data science. Dr. Thompson left TAE Technologies in 2019 for a two year stint in the defense industry as a senior Technology Development Manager in the advanced R&D division of BAE Systems, Inc. In 2021, he returned to private fusion development as the Director of Systems Engineering for Zap Energy Inc. near Seattle.