RICHARD THOMPSON is a 3D artist and an associate professor at NJIT, where he coordinated the Digital Design program for the last two years. His career spans over 35 years of experience in the creative and collaborative arts industries on a variety of award-winning projects. He received the 24-25 Faculty Award for Rising Star in Research and Scholarship, and his teaching has just been recognized with a Nexus of Excellence Award in the category of Excellence in Innovation in Education. Previously, when at Middlesex College, he was presented with an Excellence in Teaching Award.

His animated short film, M0D3RN T1M3Z, has won awards at 28 national and international film festivals. His 3D artwork, Nonna, was showcased at the Rockland Arts Festival and won an award at the ICE CineFest. Another piece, Speechless, was also exhibited. His animated short film script, La Piazza, has been selected at 9 film festivals, winning two awards.

His creative work and ongoing scholarship focus on bringing virtual characters to life, visual storytelling through animation, and the interrelation between the history of clowning and digital character performance. In the industry, he worked as an animator and 3D designer in the production pipeline for Word World, a multi-Emmy Award-winning TV series.

In an earlier career as an actor and playwright, he appeared on and off-Broadway in Tony and Obie award-winning plays; he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Best Actor Award for the role of Jimmy Porter in John Osborne’s Look Back In Anger; and his play, Hunting Humans, won several Drama-Logue awards, including for best writing.