Prof. Edward Thomas, Jr. is originally from the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. After graduating from the Charlotte Amalie High School in 1985, he went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Physics at the Florida Institute of Technology, a Master’s degree in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Physics at Auburn University.
After completing his PhD in 1996, he became an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In January 2000, Dr. Thomas returned to Auburn University as a faculty member.
Dr. Thomas began his research career in experimental studies of edge particle transport in fusion plasmas, which has expanded into experimental and computational investigations of dusty plasmas, strongly magnetized plasmas and laboratory simulations of the space environment. He is an elected member of the International Union of Radio Science – Commission H, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists. He has served on numerous advisory committees for the American Physical Society (APS), NSF, DOE, the National Academies, and the European Space Agency and he is currently serving as the Chair-Elect of the APS – Division of Plasma Physics.
From August, 2017 to August 2021, he served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the Auburn University College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM). From August, 2021 to February, 2023, he served as Interim Dean of COSAM. In March, 2023, he began serving as Dean of COSAM.