Peter Thompson graduated as a veterinarian at Onderstepoort in 1990, completed an internship in farm animal medicine at Cornell University in 1991 and joined the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, as a Senior Lecturer in Production Animal Medicine in 1992. He obtained his MMedVet and SAVC specialist registration in Bovine Medicine in 1999 before shifting focus to veterinary epidemiology. In 2006 he obtained a PhD at Utrecht University and in 2015 was registered by the SAVC as a specialist in Veterinary Epidemiology. He currently teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in veterinary epidemiology, has successfully supervised or co-supervised 32 masters and 14 PhD students and authored or co-authored over 130 scientific papers and 150 conference presentations.