Matthew C. Thompson
SVP of Integrated Systems
Matthew C. Thompson is Senior Vice President of Integrated Systems at Zap, leading the development of liquid metals, advanced materials, and design integration for both fission and fusion.
Thompson is a plasma physicist turned engineering program leader whose career has been spent spearheading teams that develop laboratory research into engineered industrial hardware. He received his BS in Physics from Stanford University, and his MS and PhD in Experimental Plasma Physics from UCLA. He has worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, TAE Technologies, and BAE Systems. Prior to his current role, Thompson led Zap’s fusion systems engineering teams, including pulsed power, liquid metal walls, durable materials, and technology integration. Thompson is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), a past Chair of the APS Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics, and a past Chair of the APS Committee on Careers and Professional Development. He has mentored numerous students, co-founded a major mentoring program called IMPact, and writes about career issues for physical scientists, including in a published book on the subject.