exploratorium

Thomas Humphrey

Senior Scientist

Thomas Humphrey is a physicist, teacher, exhibit developer, artist, and guitar player with a Ph.D. in elementary particle physics from Caltech. His research was done at Fermilab. Thomas joined the Exploratorium staff in 1973 and worked closely for many years with Frank Oppenheimer, the museum’s founder and director. An Exploratorium Senior Scientist, Thomas has been principal investigator on dozens of projects involving exhibit development and teaching in the areas of seeing, listening, physics, feedback, mathematics, and navigation. He’s also been involved with exhibits developed through our artist-in-residence program, and he’s tested innovative exhibit techniques.

 

Related Exhibits

Circles of Magnetism

Electricity moving in a wire makes a circular magnetic field.

Where:   Gallery 2: Tinkering

Echo Tube

Make a sound into the echo tube and listen for it to reflect back from the far end. You’ll hear a half-second delay, and strange distortions created by the journey.

Where:   Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits

Seismograph

This seismograph is an earthquake detector that records the up-and-down motion of the ground—whether made by tectonic activity or by you.

Where:   Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine