Faculty Spotlight: Conversation with Dr. Thomas Thesen

Name (pronouns): Thomas Thesen (he, him, his)

Hometown: Trier, Germany

Year at Geisel: 1 ½ years

Career interest: Medical Educator & Scientist

The best thing about Geisel is: A resource-rich academic center surrounded by wilderness

Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: Skiway in the winter, Moosilauke and the Connecticut River in the summer

Favorite activity in the Upper Valley: Hiking, skiing and rowing

Book/poem Recommendation: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, an aging academic in pursuit of self-discovery and trying to reconcile the contrasting aspects of one's nature, ambitions, and the pursuit of harmony within oneself. Strangely, I read it as a teenager and it was as relevant then as it is now.

Favorite piece of music/song: Most recently, Noah Kahan’s Emmy award-winning songs about the challenges of living in rural NH resonate with me.

Favorite quote: “To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge” – Confucius, 

Memento mori - Stoic philosophers

Most treasured travel: Skippering a small sailboat across the Atlantic

Guilty pleasure: I have a sweet tooth that I have been unable to extract completely 

Unknown fact about you: I probably have undiagnosed ADHD. I also spent one year in the military. 

Anything else: My dog Sophie is Miss February 2024 in the ‘Dogs of Dartmouth’ calendar. At age 13, she still got it!

 

Thomas Thesen, Ph.D. - Associate Professor & Principal Investigator

Dr. Thesen received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Oxford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in brain imaging at the University of California, San Diego. He was a faculty member in the Department of Neurology at Grossman School of Medicine at New York University for over 10 years, where he was the director of NYU ECoG, a center for research in patients with brain implants. Most recently, he was a founding faculty member at the new College of Medicine at the University of Houston before coming to Dartmouth. He is a co-director of the Neuroscience & Neurology and Medical Learning Sciences courses in the MD program at Geisel, and a visiting scientist  at the Brain & Mind Institute in Nairobi. Thomas initially came to the US as an international student from Germany. He is an avid sailor and outdoor enthusiast, enjoying skiing, hiking, and freediving.

 

Host: Tamar Mosulishvili

Co-Host: John Emery

Editor: Willa Merrill