Thurston has worked at the University of Notre Dame since 1992 as the Physical Sciences Librarian. In the past few years, he:

* organized the 2016 Great Lakes Science Boot Camp for Librarians held at the University of Notre Dame. The event drew 75 people from 14 states and one province;

* was awarded the University of Notre Dame Foik Award in 2017 for significant contributions to library service to the Notre Dame community or to the library profession through personal scholarship or substantive engagement in professional associations;

* was promoted to full librarian in 2018;

* was awarded the PAM Achievement Award in 2018 for professional work that is marked by distinction and dedication to librarianship in Physics, Astronomy, and/or Mathematics (PAM). PAM is a division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA);

* gave a talk on using Excel at the 2018 Annual SLA conference that was voted as one of the best sessions by attendees. Afterward, the talk was included in the webinar series: Best of the SLA.