Biology students benefit from Norbert Thompson’s philanthropy

Norbert Thompson ’51

Norbert Thompson, an advocate of science and a 1951 UA alumnus, continues lending a helping hand to students. His 2017 gift created a tiered mentoring program in the Department of Biology, as well as the Norbert Thompson Biology Undergraduate Symposium. In the past year, even amidst the coronavirus pandemic, research and another round of 13 new tiered mentoring projects on campus have continued with 17 students placed into research labs (subject to UA safety protocols), all thanks to Thompson. Each research group was awarded funds for research supplies from his generosity.

Additionally, five of the mentoring students have either presented their research at an international meeting or had their research published in peer-reviewed journals during this academic year. To date, Thompson’s funding has allowed 18 mentoring students to have their research presented at seminars and/or be published in peer-reviewed journals.