| Experience |
| 07/2022 – Present. Modeling and Analysis Manager, Sequoia Climate Foundation. Location: Irvine, CA. |
| 01/2020 – 06/2022. Postdoctoral Researcher with the Iterative Eden Project (IEP), National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS), University of California, Santa Barbara. Location: Santa Barbara, CA. |
| 05/2018 – 12/2019. Research Scholar with FABLE, IIASA. Location: Laxenburg, Austria. |
| 08/2017 & 01-03/2018. Mikhalevich Award Fellow, IIASA. Location: Laxenburg, Austria. |
| 09/2017-12/2017. Teaching Fellow, UCLA Undergraduate Education Initiative sponsored by the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability • Food: A Lens for Environment and Sustainability (Freshman GE Cluster M1) under Prof. Jenny Jay, Dr. Raffaella D’Auria, Dr. Cully Nordby. Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 09/2016-04/2017. Teaching Fellow, UCLA Undergraduate Education Initiative sponsored by the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability • Food: A Lens for Environment and Sustainability (Freshman GE Cluster M1) under Prof. Jenny Jay, Dr. Raffaella D’Auria, Dr. Cully Nordby and Dr. Andy Rice. Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 04-06/2016. Teaching Associate, UCLA Geography • Past Societies and their Lessons for Our Own Future (ANTHRO M158Q/GEOG M153/HNRS M152) under Prof. Jared Diamond Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 01-03/2016. Muir Research Fellow and Reader, UCLA Geography • Past Societies and their Lessons for Our Own Future (ANTHRO M158Q/GEOG M153/HNRS M152) under Prof. Jared Diamond Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 10-12/2015. Teaching Associate, UCLA Geography • Modeling the Environment (GEOG 166) under Prof. Kyle Cavanaugh Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 05-09/2015. Muir Memorial Chair Research Fellow, UCLA Geography Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 05-09/2015. Research Fellow Southwest Center for Climate Science Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 10/2013-01/2014. Managing Editor Environmental Humanities Now Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 05-09/2013. Graduate Student Researcher Institute of the Environment and Sustainability Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| 09-11/2009. Field Researcher MAPAD (mission archéologique et paléontologique Afar Djibouti) Location: Dikhil, Djibouti. |
| 09-12/2007. Lecturer in Physics Department of Arts and Science, Modern College of Business and Science Location: Muscat, Oman. |
| 05-09/2007. Research Assistant Department of Anthropological Science, Stanford University Location: Stanford, CA. |
| 09/2001-05/2005. Teaching Assistant and Lab Demonstrator Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen’s University Location: Kingstion, ON, Canada. |
| Education |
| 2018. Ph.D. (Geography) University of California, Los Angeles Dissertation: “Climate, corn, and culture: Modeling paleoenvironmental change and Native American Zea mays agriculture in Utah at the MCA-LIA transition” Chair: Glen M. MacDonald Los Angeles, CA |
| 2015. C.Phil. (Geography) University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA |
| 2004. M.Sc. (Neutrino Astrophysics) Queen’s University Thesis: “222Rn calibration and spatial symmetry of sensitivity of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) Detector” Chair: Aksel Hallin Kingston, ON, Canada |
| 2001. B.Sc. (honours, Physics) Queen’s University Kingston, ON, Canada |
| Journal Articles |
| Thelen, T., Thomson, M. J., Aldana, G., Gonzalez, T. (2022). villager: A framework for designing and executing agent-based models in R. Journal of Open Source Software. 7(79), 4562, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.04562 Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, K. M., Azevedo, T., Boyajian, C., Brun, J., Budden, A. E., Cole, A., Csik, S., DeCesaro, J., Do-Linh, H., Dudney, J., Galaz García, C., Leonard, S., Lyon, N. J., Marks, A., Parish, J., Phillips, A. A., Scarborough, C., Smith, J., Thomson, M., Vargas Poulsen, C., Caitlin R. Fong, C.R. (2022). Ten simple rules to cultivate belonging in collaborative data science research teams. PLoS Computational Biology. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010567 FABLE Consortium. (2022). How can diverse national food and land-use priorities be reconciled with global sustainability targets? Lessons from the FABLE initiative. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01227-7 Navarro-Garcia, J., Marcos-Martinez, R., Mosnier, A., Schmidt-Traubb, G., Javalera-Rincón, V., Obersteiner, M., Perez Guzman, K., Thomson, M. J., Penescu, L., Douzal, C., Bryan, B. A., Hadjikakou, M. (2022). Multi-target scenario discovery to plan for sustainable food and land use systems in Australia. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01202-2 Bednar, J., Obersteiner, M., Baklanov, A., Thomson, M. J., Wagner, F., Geden, O., Allen, M., Hall, J. (2021). Operationalizing the net negative carbon economy. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03723-9 Thomson, M. J., MacDonald, G. M. (2020). Climate and growing season variability impacted the intensity and distribution of Fremont maize farmers during and after the Medieval Climate Anomaly based on a statistically downscaled climate model. Environmental Research Letters. doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aba57e Colven, E. L., Thomson, M. J. (2019). Bridging the Divide between Human and Physical Geography: Potential Avenues for Collaborative Research on Climate Modeling. Geography Compass, 13(2), e12418. doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12418 Thomson, M. J., Balkovich, J., Krisztin, T., MacDonald, G. M. (2018). Simulated crop yield for Zea mays for Fremont Ancestral Puebloan sites in Utah between 850-1499 CE based on temperature dailies from a statistically downscaled climate model. Quaternary International. 10.1016/j.quaint.2018.09.031 Loisel, J., MacDonald, G. M., Thomson, M. J. (2017). Little Ice Age climatic erraticism as an analogue for future enhanced hydroclimatic variability across the American Southwest. PLoS One, 12(10), 1-16. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186282 SNO Collaboration. (2005). Electron energy spectra, fluxes, and day-night asymmetries of 8B solar neutrinos from measurements with NaCl dissolved in the heavy-water detector at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Physical Review C, 72(5), 055502. SNO Collaboration. (2005). Search for periodicities in the 8B solar neutrino flux measured by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Physical Review D, 72(5), 052010. SNO Collaboration. (2004). Constraints on nucleon decay via invisible modes from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Physical Review Letters, 92(10), 102004. SNO Collaboration. (2004). Electron antineutrino search at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Physical Review D, 70(9), 093014. SNO Collaboration. (2004). Measurement of the Total Active 8B Solar Neutrino Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory with Enhanced Neutral Current Sensitivity. Physical Review Letters, 92(18), 181301. |
Book Chapters |
| Thomson, M. J., Colven, E. (Submitted, in review). Pluralizing the production and use of climate models. In Climate Changed: Models and the Built World. MIT Press. Thomson, M. J. (2021). Integrated Assessment Models. The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. Wiley. preprint. Thomson, M. J. (2018). Paleoclimatology, Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. Encyclopedia of Ecology (Second edition). Elsevier. doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10894-2 |
Technical Reports & Software |
| Thelen, T., Aldana, G., Thomson, M., Gonzalez, T. (2022). villager: A Framework for Designing and Running Agent Based Models. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=villager FOLU Coalition. (2019). Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. The Global Consultation Report of the Food and Land Use Coalition September 2019. Full Report, Long Summary, and Executive Summary. Thomson, M. J., Pérez-Guzmán, K., Sperling, F., Frank, S. (2019). European Union. Chapter in the 2019 Report of the FABLE Consortium. p. 180-191. Mosnier, A., et al. (The FABLE Consortium) (2019). 2019 Report of the FABLE Consortium: Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems. Laxenburg and Paris: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Full Report and Executive Summary. |
| Grants and Awards |
| 2017. Mickhalevich Award, with Honors, IIASA, Austria Competitive fellowship awarded following nomination by YSSP supervisors and external peer-review of final research paper, “Climate, Corn and Culture: Simulated Impact of Paleoclimate Change on Fremont Native American Maize Farming in Utah,” supervised by T. Krisztin and J. Balkovic. (Of 51 YSSP projects, 13 finalists were nominated for 4 awards, 2 of were given honors.) Grants an additional 3 month research residency at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. |
| 2016. Young Scientists Summer Research fellowship, IIASA, Austria Competitive fellowship awarded in my case by the National Academy of Sciences through the National Science Foundation to fund a 3 month research internship at the interdisciplinary International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. |
| 2015. Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics Awarded a share as a member of SNO “for the fundamental discovery and exploration of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics.” Laureates. |
| 2015 & 2014. Helin Research Travel Grant, UCLA Joint Departmental and privately endowed grant to pursue dissertation-related fieldwork in a non-English speaking country (Egypt in my case). |
| 2014 & 2012. Graduate Summer Research Mentor (GSRM) fellowship, UCLA Fellowship awarded to aspiring scientists to fund summer research ($6000+). |
| 2012. Graduate Student Mentor (GSM) Fellowship, UCLA Competitive fellowship awarded to graduate students to work closely with faculty supervisor on a research project for publication ($34,600). |
| 2001. Carl Rienhardt Award, Queen’s University at Kingston Fellowship for graduate studies. |
| Presentations |
| Discussion panelist speaking on behalf of the FABLE Consortium at the Global Forum for Innovations in Marginal Environments (GFIME), hosted by the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA). Date: 11/2019. Location: Dubai, UAE. |
| “Scenathon: First Results of a Model-Aided, Structured Negotiation for Convergence Towards Global Sustainability Goals,” AGU Fall meeting 2018. Presentation (ID GC42C-06). Date: 12/2018. Location: Washington, DC. |
| “Impact of climate change on Native American maize farming at the MCA-LIA transition,” Climates and Cultures: Perspectives for the future conference, Palais des Académies. Talk and poster. Date: 05/2018. Location: Brussels, Belgium. |
| “Crop model simulated impact of climate change on Fremont Native American maize farming at the MCA-LIA transition using a statistically downscaled GCM,” American Geophysical Union (AGU). Poster. Date: 12/2016. Location: San Francisco, CA. |
| “Climate change and civilization: What do we know about global warming in the past, present and future?” Santa Rita Jail, Alameda County. Invited to speak to inmates engaged in a special environmental literacy education program. Date: 12/2016. Location: Dublin, CA. |
| “Simulated impact of climate change on Fremont Native American maize farming at the MCA-LIA transition, ~12-13th c.,” Mountain Climate Conference, MtnClim2016. Poster. Date: 10/2016. Location: Leavenworth, WA. |
| “Climate, Corn and Collapse? A Paleoclimate Model and Proxy Based Analysis of Native American Agricultural Decline in Prehistoric Utah,” Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual meeting. Paper. Date: 05/2016. Location: San Francisco, CA. |
| “Using Stochastically Downscaled Climate Models and Multiproxy Lake Sediment Data to Connect Climatic Variations Over the Past 1000 Years and the History of Prehistoric Maize Farming in Utah,” American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. Poster. Date: 12/2015. Location: San Francisco, CA. |
| “Reconstructing conditions for Fremont Zea mays horticulture,” PACLIM Conference 2015, Asilomar Conference Grounds. Poster. Date: 03/2015. Location: Pacific Grove, CA. |
| “Holocene Nile paleohydrology and eastern Mediterranean paleohydroclimatology”, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting. Date: 04/2014. Location: Tampa, FL. |
| “A critical review of Holocene paleohydrology and paleohydroclimatology of the Nile and Eastern Mediterranean,” 78th annual Society for American Archaeologists meeting. Date: 04/2013. Location: Honolulu, HI. |
| “Applying paleoclimatological methods to study occupational change in an archaeological site,” 6th annual Earth and Planetary Sciences Student Symposium. Date: 04/2013. Location: Los Angeles, CA. |
| “Holocene geoarchaeology and biogeography in the Fayum, Egypt,” (poster) 67th annual California Geographical Society Conference. Poster. Date: 04/2013. Location: San Luis Obispo, CA. |
| Articles (in preparation) |
| FABLE Consortium Technical Working Group. (in prep.) Description of the FABLE Calculator. Environmental Modelling and Software. |
| FABLE Consortium. (in prep.) Coordinating globally consistent national pathways towards sustainable land-use and food systems. |
| Thomson, M. J., MacDonald, G. M., Porinchu, D. (in prep.) Mean July lake surface temperatures for lakes in southwestern and central Utah using chironomid-based inference thermometry. |
| Thomson, M. J., MacDonald, G. M. (in prep.) Macroscopic charcoal-based paleofire records for Alpine Pond, Dixie NF, Blue Lake, Manti La Sal NF, and Denise Lake, Ashley NF, on a diagonal transect of montane Utah. |
| Service |
| Academic 2020/21 — Expert reviewer for the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), Second Order Draft Government and Expert Review 2020 — Reviewer for the Journal of Quaternary Science 2019 — Reviewer for Scientific Reports 2016 — Reviewer for Ecological Modelling Non-academic 2018-19 — President of the Social and Cultural (SOCU) Board at IIASA 2012-13 — Co-president for geography grads within the Graduate Students Association (GSA) at UCLA 2002-03 — Co-representative for physics and astronomy grads to the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) at Queen’s University |
| Memberships |
| American Geophysical Union (AGU), Association of American Geographers (AAG), Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG), the Geological Society of America (GSA), the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) |
Marcus James Thomson, Ph.D. 