Mark R. Thompson (born June 8, 1960) is an academic whose comparative politics research focuses on Southeast Asia, with particular interest in the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
He is chair professor of politics in the Department of Public and International Affairs at the City University of Hong Kong, where he is also director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC).
The co-editor of the Routledge/City University of Hong Kong Southeast Asia Series, he has received several major external grants worth over one million USD.
He lends his expertise to government, public foundations, and non-government organizations in the areas of East Asian (Northeast and Southeast Asia) politics and development and has been a regular commentator on leading academic blogs as well as in the local and international press.
He recently received a General Research Fund grant with Professors Julio Teehankee and Ronald Holmes to study authoritarian nostalgia in the Philippines.
With Diego Fossati and Nicholas Thomas, in 2021 he was awarded an additional GRF grant on the political and public health consequences of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia.