Nicholas Thompson

About Nicholas

updated 2/2014: Nick Thompson is a senior at Emory University and will receive his Bachelor of Science in Biology and Bachelor of Arts in Music in May 2013. Nick has pursued his professional interests, medicine and science, for much of his time in college. After his freshman year, he was a clinical research volunteer in the Neurology Department at the University of Chicago. There, he facilitated a drug trial with Multiple Sclerosis patients and helped standardize a new imaging technique, Optical Coherence Tomography, as a method of marking the progress of the disease. At Emory, Nick started an independent research project investigating the mechanisms of exercise and electrical stimulation to enhance axon regeneration after peripheral nerve injury. He has continued this research project through his senior year and is currently pursuing an honors thesis in biology with this work. Nick is also deeply interested in the overlap between culture, religion, and medicine/science.During the summer of 2012, he participated in Emory’s Tibetan Mind/Body Sciencesprogram, a 5-week program in Dharamsala, India. The program largely explored the role that religion and culture play in influencing healing practices in Tibetan populations, as well as the convergence of those subjects with Western neuroscience. In addition to his studies of medicine and science, Nick has pursued other interests while at Emory. An accomplished cellist, he has been principal of the cello section in the Emory University Symphony Orchestra, played in several musical ensembles, and engaged in intensive solo performance. Nick also has a passion for the game of chess, which led him to become a chess instructor at local Atlanta elementary schools and president of the Emory Chess Club. He has led efforts to partner with the Georgia Chess Association to create intercollegiate tournaments for students in Georgia. Nick places a high value on community service and Jewish culture. He is president of the Emory chapter of Challah for Hunger, a group that, nationally, has raised more than $400,000 for Sudanese refugees. Through the weekly baking and sale of challah bread, Nick has directed and organized fundraising and advocacy for the American Jewish World Service in Sudan and the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta.