David W. J. Thompson

David W. J. Thompson is a Professor in Climate Change Science at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA), and holds a concurrent position as Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University (CSU). He joined CSU in 2001 and UEA in 2021. His research focuses on large-scale climate variability, integrating observational analyses with numerical modeling to explore mechanisms underlying climate change and variability.

Education: PhD (Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, 2000), M.S. (Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, 1998), B.S. (Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado, 1994).

Research Interests: Climate dynamics, stratosphere-troposphere coupling, ocean-atmosphere interactions, decadal variability, cloud radiative effects, and temperature persistence under climate change. Current projects include studying wildfire smoke impacts on circulation, ocean circulation's role in climate variability, and the physics of temperature persistence.

Grants & Collaborations: Lead on the Royal Society-funded project 'Insights into middle and high latitude climate variability and change' (2021–2026). Collaborates globally on climate research, focusing on observational and model-based analyses.

Labs/Teams: Member of UEA's Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and Climatic Research Unit. Leads a research group at UEA including Postdoctoral Researcher Luke Davis, and maintains ties with his former CSU research group.