William Thompson joins forces with chemist to tackle pressing safety issues

November 30, 2012

Prof. Thompson is involved in a unique collaboration with a Livermore Labs chemist to use forensic science to investigate potential weapons of mass destruction and to monitor carbon emissions in urban areas. This project is funded by the UC Laboratory Fees Research Program, which allows researchers at the University of California and Los Alamos and Livermore national laboratories to pool their strengths and apply them to such challenges as national security, greenhouse gases and alternative energy. The project that joins psychologist and lawyer Prof. Thompson with Livermore chemist and forensic scientist Steven Velsko aims to find out how prone WMD forensics experts are to certain cognitive traps, and to identify possible weaknesses in communication channels where misunderstandings can lead to bad decisions. Read more about the collaboration in this feature story.