UNL ORCA Interview Series

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Date of this Version

6-29-2026

Document Type

Article

Citation

Transcript, June 29, 2026

Comments

Copyright 2026, Mark Griep. Used by permission.

Abstract

Ross Thompson was awarded the ORCA in 2000. He was born in 1954 in Madison, Wisconsin. He traveled nearly 2000 miles west to earn a bachelor’s in psychology magna cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles. Then, he traveled east over 2200 miles to earn a master’s and doctorate in psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1981, he joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an assistant professor of psychology and rose quickly through the ranks while studying childhood emotional development. In 2003, three years after earning the ORCA, Ross left UNL to join the psychology department at the University of California, Davis. He retired in 2023 and still lives in California.

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