LuAnn Thompson is the Walters Endowed Professor at the University of Washington.
She is known for her work in modeling the movement of heat and chemicals via ocean currents.
Following her Ph.D. she moved to the University of Washington first as a post-doctoral fellow, and then she joined the faculty in 1993.
[2] Thompson's early research developed models of water flow[3] and used laboratory experiments to examine the production of eddies.
[4] Subsequent research examined the factors controlling sea surface height,[5][6] which she measures using data from satellites,[7] and the physical conditions in the ocean that lead to the formation of water masses.