Scott Thompson, PhD

Scott Thompson is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, arriving in 2022.

Dr. Thompson received a B.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Stanford. He then spent nearly 10 years on the faculty of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, at the Brain Research Institute before coming to the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1998. He remained in the Department of Physiology for 24 years, including 11 as Chair.

The work in Dr. Thompson’s laboratory has led to five patents for novel pharmacological approaches for treating depression that have been licensed to two companies dedicated to bringing these compounds from the laboratory to the clinic. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for several pharmaceutical companies, large and small.

In addition to the laboratory, Dr. Thompson is the Director of Novel Therapeutics for the Department of Psychiatry’s Brain and Behavior Innovation Center. He is also the Director of the Psychedelic Public Policy Partnership, a group of roughly 100 scientists and clinicians centered on the CU Anschutz campus, dedicated to advising the State of Colorado as it writes the rules to implement the Natural Medicines Healing act, providing a legalized pathway for treating mental illness with psilocybin.