David R. Thompson is a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His work advances the theory and practice of imaging spectroscopy for remote sensing. David achieved the first detection of a facility-scale methane superemitter from orbit [@thompson2016aliso]. He is currently the Instrument Scientist for NASA’s EMIT imaging spectrometer mission, responsible for performance assessment, radiometric calibration, and spectral calibration. In this role, he also spearheaded a demonstration of the first active on-orbit FPA alignment, achieving positional adjustments with sub-micron precision [@thompson2024emit]. David pioneered the use of optimal estimation algorithms for atmosphere/surface estimation by broadband visible-shortwave imaging spectrometers [@thompson2018optimal], a technique which is now considered state of the art, and is used operationally by EMIT.
Education
- PhD in Robotics | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA | 2003-2008
- MSc in Informatics | University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK | 2001-2002
Professional Experience
- 2023-present: Deputy Project Scientist, SBG-VSWIR Imaging Spectrometer Mission
- 2020-present: Adjunct Professor, Arizona State University
- 2019-present: Instrument Scientist, HVM3 on Lunar Trailblazer
- 2018-present: Instrument Scientist, EMIT Imaging Spectrometer Mission
- 2016-present: Investigation Scientist, AVIRIS Airborne Imaging Spectrometer
- 2016-present: Technical Group Lead, Imaging Spectroscopy Group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- 2008-present: Research Technologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory\
