Rate My Professor Neil Thomson

Neil Thomson, Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago, earned his BSc (Honours) and PhD in Physics from the same institution. After completing his PhD, he pursued a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institut für Aeronomie in Lindau am Harz, Germany (now the Max Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung). He subsequently worked as a space physicist at the Physics and Engineering Laboratory, DSIR, Lower Hutt (now Industrial Research Limited), for approximately four years. He then joined the University of Otago, advancing from lecturer to senior lecturer to associate professor in Physics. Thomson undertook several study leaves in space physics from 1984 to 2005 at Stanford University and the British Antarctic Survey in Sheffield and Cambridge. He retired in April 2016 but continues his association as an Honorary Associate Professor and participates in research group activities, including recent publications up to 2025.

Thomson's research centers on the effects of electromagnetic radiation and fast particles from the Sun and cosmos on Earth's upper atmosphere, with emphasis on ionization influencing radio communications and radiation monitoring. He specializes in Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio wave propagation in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide at 50-90 km altitude, sensitive to solar X-ray flares, gamma-ray bursts, particle precipitation, cosmic rays, and variations across day-dusk-night-dawn cycles, latitudes, seasons, and solar cycles. Recent efforts characterize the quiet-time baseline height and sharpness of this waveguide using New Zealand and global observations alongside physics-based modeling. He also investigates radio propagation in the plasmasphere at around 10,000 km altitude through ray-tracing models. Key publications include Thomson, Clilverd, & Rodger (2025), "Ionospheric D region: Characteristics near dawn and dusk," Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics; Thomson et al. (2022), "Ionospheric D region: VLF-measured electron densities compared with rocket-based FIRI-2018 model," Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics; and contributions to the 11th VERSIM Workshop (2024) and European Space Weather Week (2024). His work supports enhanced space weather monitoring via ionospheric D region studies.