David J. Thomson

David J. Thomson
NationalityCanadian
CitizenshipCanadian, American[citation needed]
Alma materAcadia University
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
Known forMultitaper
Scientific career
FieldsStatistics, electrical engineering, physics
InstitutionsBell Labs (Mathematical Sciences Division)
Queen's University at Kingston

David J. Thomson is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen's University in Ontario and a Canada Research Chair in statistics and signal processing, formerly a member of the technical staff at Bell Labs. He is a professional engineer in the province of Ontario, a fellow of the IEEE and a chartered statistician. He holds memberships of the Royal Statistical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Statistical Society of Canada and the American Geophysical Union and, in 2009, received a Killam Research Fellowship (administered through the Canada Council for the Arts). In 2010, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[1] In 2013, he was awarded the Statistical Society of Canada impact award.[2]

He is best known for creation of the multitaper method of spectral estimation, first published in complete form in 1982 in a special issue of Proceedings of the IEEE.[3] Thomson's 1995 Science paper first conclusively showed the relationship between atmospheric CO2 and global temperature.[4] Thomson and Bell Labs colleagues Carol G. Maclennan and Louis J. Lanzerotti authored a 1995 Nature paper in which they showed evidence that the magnetic signatures of the Sun's normal modes permeate the interplanetary magnetic field as far as Jupiter.[5] He has written over 100 other peer-reviewed journal articles in the fields of statistics, space physics, climatology and paleoclimatology, and seismology.

  1. ^ "Royal Society of Canada Fellow Search". Royal Society of Canada. Retrieved June 15, 2012.[permanent dead link]
    - "Three Queen's Professors named to Royal Society of Canada". Queen's University at Kingston. Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  2. ^ "2013 SSC Award Winners". Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  3. ^ Thomson, David J. (1982). "Spectrum estimation and harmonic analysis" (PDF). Proceedings of the IEEE. 70 (9): 1055–1096. Bibcode:1982IEEEP..70.1055T. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.471.1278. doi:10.1109/proc.1982.12433. S2CID 290772.
  4. ^ Thomson, David J. (1997). "Dependence of global temperatures on atmospheric CO2 and solar irradiance". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 94 (16): 8370–8377. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94.8370T. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.16.8370. PMC 33755. PMID 11607747.
  5. ^ Thomson, David J.; Maclennan, Carol G.; Lanzerotti, Louis J. (1995). "Propagation of solar oscillations through the interplanetary medium". Nature. 376 (6536): 139–144. Bibcode:1995Natur.376..139T. doi:10.1038/376139a0. S2CID 4281821.