James B. Thompson Jr.
James Burleigh Thompson Jr. was an American mineralogist and geologist. He was known for his research into the thermodynamics of minerals and the relationship to structure. He introduced the term polysomatic series for describing layered structures with chemically distinct layers.
Education and career
Thompson studied geology at Dartmouth College, graduating with an AB in 1942. From 1942 to 1946, he worked in the United States [Army Air Forces] as a weather forecaster. He started graduate school afterwards, studying in geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated with a PhD in 1950.Thompson was hired at Harvard University as an instructor in petrology in 1949 as a successor of Esper Signius Larsen. He was promoted to assistant professor in the following year to full professorship in 1960. Thompson was named Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard in 1977.