His doctoral thesis (PhD, 1962) under the supervision of (Lord) Henry Chilver[1] was devoted to the buckling of thin spherical shells.

He joined the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University College London (UCL) in 1964, where he was professor from 1977-2002.

The centre hosted an IUTAM Symposium [11] in 1993, and Thompson was for 10 years (1998-2007) a vigorous and innovative editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, the world’s longest running scientific journal.

[12][13] His later research developed the static-dynamic analogy,[14] delineating spatial chaos in twisted rods and buckling cylinders;[15][16] together with some ideas regarding climate change.

was edited by Isaac Elishakoff,[19] for which Thompson wrote a paper offering advice to young researchers.