Mr. Thompson joined Analytic Services in January 1979 and has spent over 30 years developing and applying analysis methods to help U.S. Government clients solve problems and manage resources efficiently and effectively. In April 2004, the Department of Homeland Security awarded the corporation a contract to operate a new Federally Funded Research and Development Center—the Homeland Security Institute—and Mr. Thompson was a member of the initial cadre that stood up the new organization. He was designated a deputy director in 2006. In 2009, DHS established a follow-on organization, the HOMELAND SECURITY STUDIES AND ANALYSIS INSTITUTE, where Mr. Thompson currently serves.

As the Institute’s Deputy Director, Programs, Mr. Thompson is responsible for developing its capabilities in such areas as strategic planning, threat assessment, mission analysis, program management, cost and cost-effectiveness analysis, and economic analysis. He also continues to contribute substantively as an analyst—for example, in developing risk-informed methods for integrating homeland security planning, programming, and budgeting. In 2007–2008, he led an independent assessment of the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal, a new type of monitor designed to improve the nation’s defense against the threat of nuclear smuggling, and presented the study results to the Secretary of Homeland Security and members of Congress.

Before his current assignment, Mr. Thompson conducted a wide range of studies for various clients within the U.S. Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Special Operations Command, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mr. Thompson has led and/or anchored several formal analyses of alternatives, cost and operational effectiveness analyses, and congressionally directed cost-effectiveness analyses of Defense Department systems.

Mr. Thompson holds an M.S. in applied mathematics (1978) from Purdue University. He earned his B.S. (1976) from Bowling Green State University, which he represented for two successive years at the prestigious National Debate Tournament. Mr. Thompson has been an active member of the Military Operations Research Society and was the runner-up for the Society’s Richard H. Barchi Prize in 1999.