Lonnie G. Thompson, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and a Research Scientist, Byrd Polar Research Center, at The Ohio State University.

Probably the most important contribution of his research efforts has been to propel the field of ice core paleoclimatology out of the Polar Regions to the highest tropical and subtropical ice fields. To do this he and his team have developed light-weight solar-powered drilling equipment for acquisition of histories from ice fields in the tropical South American Andes and on Kilimanjaro. These paleoclimate histories, published in more than 175 articles, including 14 in Science and Nature, have helped advance understanding of the coupled nature of the Earth's climate system. Thompson's research places special emphasis on the El Niño and monsoon systems that dominate the climate of the tropical Pacific and affect global-scale oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns.

In 2000, his team drilled the ice fields of Kilimanjaro, recovering six ice cores to bedrock and then went on to recover three ice cores, two to bedrock, from the Puruogangri ice cap in the center of the Tibetan Plateau. In 2002 the team successfully recovered a 460-meter core to bedrock on the col on Bona-Churchill in Southeast Alaska. This was the longest core ever recovered from a mountain range. In 2003, the OSU team successfully recovered 550 meters of core from Quelccaya and Coropuna ice caps in the high Andes of Peru. The latter expedition represented the successful completion of Thompson's 47th expedition to polar and high-altitude regions.

Over the years he has been conducting these ice core drilling programs, he and his team have been mapping the total area and volume of the ice cover at many of these sites. The results of more than 20 years of measurements were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco in February of 2001. Those results show that many of the glaciers and ice caps atop mountains in Africa and South America will disappear in the next 10 to 20 years. For example, since 1912 when the first map of the ice fields of Kilimanjaro was made and 2000, when he had aerial photos taken and a map produced, roughly 82% of the total area of ice cover on the mountain had disappeared.

Thompson recovered the first tropical ice core in 1983 from the Quelccaya ice cap, in Peru, and then went on in 1987 to recover the first long ice core from Tibetan Plateau from the Dunde Ice Cap. In 1992 his team recovered cores from the Guliya Ice Cap (northwestern Tibet) that contain both the entire sequence of the Last Glacial Stage (~120 kyr) and the oldest ice on Earth that dates more than 700,000 years in age. Other tropical cores recovered include those from Huascarán, Peru (1993) and from the summit of Sajama, the highest mountain in Bolivia (1997). Moreover, insects and plant fragments found in the Sajama ice core allowed the first systematic AMS 14 C dating of an ice core.

Thompson has served on a number of National Academy of Sciences Committees and planning panels for NSF and NOAA, and other organizations. His research has resulted in major revisions in the field of paleoclimatology, in particular showing that the tropical regions have undergone significant climate changes, countering the earlier view that the higher latitudes dominate climate change.

In 2001, Thompson was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was selected by The Ohio State University as a Distinguished Scholar. In 2002 he was awarded Ohio State's highest honor, the permanent title of Distinguished University Professor. He was selected by Time Magazine and CNN as one of "America's Best in Science and Medicine." His research was highlighted in a portion of CNN Presents America's Best in Science and Medicine on August 12 and in a special section of the August 13th, 2001 Time Magazine. In 2002, he was honored with the Vega Medal by the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, the Commonwealth Award for Science and Invention, and the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.