Thompson Awarded for
Career Achievements

Thompson earned an M.Ed. at UGA in 1977 and an Ed.D. in
1982. In making the award for professional achievement, UGA
officials noted that Thompson was professor of mathematics
education at Vanderbilt University from 1997–2005 and served
as chair of the department of teaching and learning from
2000-03. Since joining ASU a year ago, he has become the
principal investigator on CRESMET’s $4.5 million National
Science Foundation grant, TPC — Teachers Processing Change
Collaboratively—developed by Center Director Marilyn Carlson.

To his credit, Thompson has three Fulbright lectures to Israel and
16 invited plenary lectures. He is currently the associate editor of
the journal Research and Cognition and recently became an editor of the journal Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education (see story in this issue)..

In addition to his service at Vanderbilt, UGA and ASU, Thompson
also served at Illinois State University and San Diego State
University, where he is an emeritus professor of mathematics education. From 1972–1975, he worked
in Sierra Leone and Uganda as a Peace Corps volunteer and an instructor with the U.S. Agency for
International Development.

Thompson’s service to his research community includes elected and appointed offices with the
International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, the American Educational Research
Association and the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics. He has served as a reviewer
and editorial board member for numerous research journals in his field, and has published more
than 70 research articles and book chapters. He is co-editor with L.P. Steffe of a book published in
2000, “Radical Constructivism in Mathematics and Science Education: Essays in Honor of Ernst von
Glasersfeld.”