John Charles. [from old catalog] Thomas

John Charles Thomas was born in Akron, Ohio and attended Ellet High School. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University majoring in psychology and minoring in mathematics and drama. He received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Michigan. His dissertation compared human performance in a problem solving task to that of an early AI system called "The General Problem Solver." After graduate school, Dr. Thomas managed a research project on the psychology of aging at...See more

John Charles Thomas was born in Akron, Ohio and attended Ellet High School. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University majoring in psychology and minoring in mathematics and drama. He received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Michigan. His dissertation compared human performance in a problem solving task to that of an early AI system called "The General Problem Solver." After graduate school, Dr. Thomas managed a research project on the psychology of aging at Harvard Medical School. In 1973, he joined IBM Research in Yorktown Heights to do research in Human Computer Interaction. During this time, he conducted research in natural language processing, query languages, speech synthesis, and design thinking. He also spent two years at IBM CHQ getting IBM to pay more attention to the human factors of computing systems and helped found the field of Human Computer Interaction and ACM's Special Interest Group in Human Computer Interaction along with "CHI", the major conference in the field. In 1986, Dr. Thomas started the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at NYNEX Science and Technology and ran the lab for a dozen years. The AI lab did R&D in Expert Systems, Machine Learning, Speech Technology, Machine Vision, Robotics, and Human Computer Interaction. In 1998, Dr. Thomas returned to IBM Research and did research in knowledge management, the business use of stories and storytelling, high performance computing systems and cognitive computing. During this time, he also helped formulate IBM Strategies in Smart Cities and IT for the "Next Billions." He has also taught a wide variety of college courses including human factors in computing systems, cognitive psychology, introductory psychology, statistics, the psychology of aging and creativity and problem solving. He has been active in ACM's SIGCHI group most recently serving on the Executive Committee as Adjust Chair for Mentoring. Dr. Thomas is a licensed psychologist in New York State and was a Fellow at the Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy. See less