Valerie Thomas

Valerie Thomas is the Anderson Interface Chair of Natural Systems, with a joint appointment in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the School of Public Policy. Her research interests span energy systems, sustainability, industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy. Current research projects include low carbon freight transportation systems, environmental impacts of food systems, and energy development in Africa. Thomas received a B. A. in physics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University. She was a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and then a Research Scientist at Princeton University, in the Princeton Environmental Institute and in the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and was a Lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2004-05, Thomas was the American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow. Thomas is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. She has served as a member of the US EPA Science Advisory Board, and as a member of the USDA/DOE Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee.