Thompson was born inPittsburgh on November 15, 1951. In 1973 he graduated fromWashington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree and in 1977 received his PhD in ecology from theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[1] His dissertation was entitled "Patch Dynamics in the Insect -Pastinaca sativa Association: Life History Tactics and Population Consequences."
Afterwards he became Visiting Assistant Professor for Entomology.
In 1978 he became Assistant Professor; 1982 Associate Professor; and 1987 Professor atWashington State University, where from 1994 he was Edward Meyer Distinguished Professor.
In 1991-2 he was aFulbright Scholar in Canberra, Australia.
In 2000 he became Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, where he was Director of the STEPS Institute for Innovation in Environmental Research from 2002 to 2007.
In 2008 he became a Distinguished Professor; and in 2014 was appointed the Jean H. Langeheim Professor of Plant Ecology and Evolution.[1]
with S. T. A. Pickett: Patch dynamics and the design of nature reserves, Biological Conservation, Band 13, 1978, S. 27–37
with M. F. Wilson: Evolution of temperate fruit/bird interactions: phenological strategies, Evolution, 1979, S. 973–982
with E. W. Price u. a.: Interactions among three trophic levels: influence of plants on interactions between insect herbivores and natural enemies, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Band 11, 1980, S. 41–65
with R. N. Mack: Evolution in steppe with few large, hooved mammals, The American Naturalist, Band 119, 1982, S. 757–773
with D. A. Pyke: Statistical analysis of survival and removal rate experiments, Ecology, Band 67, 1986, S. 240–245
with P. W. Price u. a.: Parasite mediation in ecological interactions, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Band 17, 1986, S. 487–505
Evolutionary ecology of the relationship between oviposition preference and performance of offspring in phytophagous insects, Entomologia experimentalis et applicata, Band 47, 1988, S. 3–14
Variation in interspecific interactions,. Annual review of ecology and systematics, Band 19, 1988, S. 65–87
with O. Pellmyr: Evolution of oviposition behavior and host preference in Lepidoptera, Annual review of entomology, Band 36, 1991, S. 65–89
with J. J. Burdon: Gene-for-gene coevolution between plants and parasites, Nature, Band 360, 1992, S. 121–125
Rapid evolution as an ecological process, Trends in Ecology & Evolution Band 13, 1998, S. 329–332
Specific hypotheses on the geographic mosaic of coevolution, The American Naturalist, Band 153, 1999, S1-S14
The evolution of species interactions, Science, Band 284, 1999, S. 2116–2118
with A. K. Sakai u. a.: The population biology of invasive species, Annual review of ecology and systematics, Band 32, 2001, S. 305–332
with B. M. Cunningham: Geographic structure and dynamics of coevolutionary selection, Nature, Band 417, 2002, S. 735
withDouglas Soltis,Pamela Soltis, D. W. Schemske, J. F. Hancock: Autopolyploidy in angiosperms: have we grossly underestimated the number of species ?, Taxon, Band 56, 2007, S. 13–30
