Paul Thompson
Neuroscientist, professor
AI guided tour - youtube.com/watch?v=fOORfzGjCTA
ENIGMA guided tour - youtube.com/watch?v=YNjP5nZsJyQ
Diffusion MRI of Brain Diseases - youtube.com/watch?v=i2jHFm0wcN0
- Nicely organised cats
- Although I never drove an Uber, they sent tax forms to the IRS saying I earned ~$30k (got another one today). I reported the identity theft to IRS/FTC/Uber (hopefully fixed it). Still curious who’s driving an Uber as me -ask them some tough neuro questions if Paul Thompson pops up in your Uber app!!
- Brilliant talk by Michael Miller at USC today. Michael has inspired countless generations of students, including me in the 1990s when his work with Ulf Grenander [1] helped new generations of mathematicians get involved with medical imaging and neuroscience. [1] www.ams.org/journals/qam...
- Brilliant to catch up with giants in neuroimaging + genetics, Anders Dale and Ole Andreassen. Thank you to Pravesh Parekh from the J Craig Venter Institute for a great talk on detecting time-dependent genomic effects on the brain, and his FEMA method to accelerate massively parallel GWAS analyses.
- Thrilled to welcome Dr. Pauline Favre on a Fulbright Fellowship to work with us on international neuroimaging in bipolar disorder! International exchange speeds up science + medicine, opens doors to training+resources; helps everyone reach their potential
- Thank you to my daughter Lauren Thompson for making this cool flyer + posting it around campus !
- PUZZLE question (asking for a friend): Does the fastest (shortest) flight from South Africa to Los Angeles go through: 1. Greenland*, 2. Brazil, 3. ask the cool bird ? * so long as nobody is invading it
- The weather got worse
- This wasn't a very sensible way to get home, or edit papers for Friday's EMBC conference deadline
- A world map *yes there are no people (only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun)
- Today I learned you should stand still if a paraglider is approaching
- Cheerio England, sad to leave
- At the end of this bleak remote road there was suddenly this
- I surprised my mom with a very quick visit (she is 88!). This is what it looks like at 3pm in the Yorkshire Moors* *it really is like the Emily Brontë books / Wuthering Heights movies
- UK football* : “it has been utterly compelling, this first half, that has failed to yield a goal.” US football: 42-68 at half time * well, soccer
- Heading north. The flight attendant asked if I had ever been to England before ;)
- Lunchtime in Mexico
- Moon over Los Angeles after the rain cleared (10pm Monday)
- OK, back to work then. Good luck to all of us :)
- 🔥 I just saw our paper made the top-20 most cited neuroscience papers of the last 30 years* (!): 🧠 Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. Gogtay N., Giedd J, .. Rapoport J Thompson PM PNAS (2004) www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... (It helps to be old!) 👇
- Cheerio 2025, with appreciation for all of you. Wishing you all a peaceful, safe, creative 2026 !
- An annoying game I am enjoying
- Have a restful holiday everyone* *or you can blast this at 100 decibels m.youtube.com/watch?v=LDPw...
- Home finally
- Puzzle: which flight mainly* goes East on the outbound journey and mainly goes East on the return journey? Clue: I did not see Santa *the pilot said this means going East for most of the journey
- Somehow loud Frank Sinatra is not good for jet lag at 6am
- I told the cheerful dog that I have to start the 4-day journey home
- “I did not want to make this hike too easy”
- Stochastic gradient ascent
- This is going on all day when we are usually writing grants
- I have borrowed a cheerful dog to walk in the Himalayas
- Friday afternoon
