Professor Chris Thompson

Professor Chris Thompson completed his undergraduate studies at the Australian National University in 2000, followed by his PhD at Monash University in the field of high resolution spectroscopy. He spent time at The University of Melbourne doing further research studying fascinating and obscure molecules using instrumentation that he helped design, and had never been seen before. In 2007, he returned to Monash University to start his career as an academic in the School of Chemistry.

Professor Thompson worked in the Faculty of Science for 15 years. He was the Coordinator of First Year Chemistry from 2009 to 2015, during which time the program changed enormously. Over this period, he completely overhauled the laboratory program, and transformed the teaching from traditional lectures to new and engaging workshops in Monash’s new Learning and Teaching Building. Professor Thompson was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2014 and a national Office of Learning and teaching Citation in 2015 for these developments.

Professor Thompson also served as the Associate Dean Education between the years 2016 to 2021, overseeing the further roll-out of active learning across the faculty, the development of a new suite of masters degrees, and sheparding our students and staff through the challenging COVID years.

Professor Thompon is currently the Director of Education at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. His current research lies in innovative science education, with specific areas of interest including the development of graduate employability skills for scientists, inquiry-oriented and case-based learning in science education, and assessment in higher education. Professor Thompson has published over 70 papers in both disciplinary chemistry and science education, and is also co-author of Australia's most popular foundation chemistry textbook. He is also husband to Melissa and a proud father to his son, Selby.