Mike Thacker

Mike Thacker is a Senior Staff R&D Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Carlsbad, CA where he has spent 25 years developing products for protein analysis and separation for use in biomolecule and medical research. During this time he has been lead researcher for the development of several commercial products and is inventor on 7 patents.

Mike attended West Virginia University and University of California Santa Barbara before earning a B.S. degree in Zoology with High Honors from San Diego State University. Additional coursework in Anthropology and Archaeology was performed at San Diego State, UCSB and Palomar College.

He has been an interpretive hike leader for the San Dieguito River Park and San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy since his docent training for the San Dieguito River Park in 1994 and was a principal in the development and leading of the SDRVC hike leader training program. Mike has also been a student then volunteer instructor for the Palomar College archaeological field excavation and survey programs since 2007 and has served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the San Diego Archaeological Center since 2017.

One of Mike’s passions is geology. With the exception of some coursework at Palomar College and assorted seminars, his expertise in this field is self-taught.

Mike resides in the San Pasqual Valley and has been a resident of San Diego County since 1971.

Other resources include:

• • Rock Types of the San Dieguito River Valley (9.2 meg .pdf)

  • Geology of the San Dieguito River Valley (9 meg .pdf)

  • Lake Sutherland Geology (7.3 meg .pdf)

  • A link to the Geology section of Kahn University...an online university (free).