Rate My Professor Sally Thompson

Professor Sally Thompson is a Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Western Australia, where she serves as Head of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering and Co-Director of the Centre for Water and Spatial Science. She holds undergraduate degrees in Environmental Chemistry and Environmental Engineering from the University of Western Australia. After working as an engineering consultant, she completed a PhD at Duke University in 2010 supported by a General Sir John Monash Award. She then undertook postdoctoral work at Princeton University and Purdue University before joining the University of California, Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Surface Hydrology in 2012. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2017 and appointed the inaugural Claire and Hsieh-Wen Shen Distinguished Research Chair. Professor Thompson joined the University of Western Australia in 2019.

Her research focuses on ecohydrology and surface hydrology, exploring interactions between ecosystems, vegetation, and the water cycle, with projects in Australia, the United States, Brazil, India, and Ethiopia. She employs mathematical modeling, remote sensing, and field observations. Professor Thompson has received the European Geophysical Union Darcy Medal, the US National Science Foundation CAREER award, the American Geophysical Union Early Career Award in Hydrology, and the European Geophysical Union Jim Dooge Award for best paper in Hydrology and Earth System Science. She is Co-Chair of the Environmental Engineering Program at UWA.