[3][4] Born in Scotland, Thomson earned BSc and MA degrees from the University of Aberdeen, then a PhD in biochemistry from Cambridge University under the eye of Nobel laureate Frederick Gowland Hopkins.
[5] After further studies in Europe, he moved to Montreal, joining the McGill faculty in 1928.
At McGill, he was Gilman Cheney Professor of Biochemistry from 1937 to 1960, dean of the faculty of graduate studies and research from 1942 to 1963, and the vice-principal from 1955 to 1963.
Thomson published several highly cited papers in major journals, including The Lancet, BMJ, NATURE, CMAJ, and J. Physiol.
Topic areas included endocrinology (particularly antihormones), vitamins (he coined the term "Vitamin B complex" in a 1938 paper),[6] He is also a writer of several books, of which "The Life of the Cell" (1928), written at the age of 27, stands out for having been translated into several languages.