Dr. Carl O. Thomas

Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. (Chemistry), University of Tennessee: Methods for the separation of hydrogen isotopes.

Brief Bio

Dr. Thomas earned his A.B. in Mathematics from Howard College in 1947  and an M.A. in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1949.  He then returned to active Navy duty during the Korean War, working on guidance methods for surface-to-air missiles.  Following that he joined the research staff of the Southern Research Institute, working on detection methods for biological warfare agents.  He earned a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Tennessee in 1957.  His dissertation dealt with methods for the separation of hydrogen isotopes.   He then joined the Bell Telephone Labs as a senior member of the research staff.  His work there concentrated on thin film semiconductor materials technology and epitaxial transistor development.  From there he went as a visiting faculty member to the Technical University of Denmark for a year, and then returned to the University of Tennessee as Associate Dean of the Graduate School.  He left UT for five years to found the Environmental Systems Corporation in Knoxville, and then for one year was a staff member of the Institute for Energy Analysis in Oak Ridge.  He then returned to the University of Tennessee as Dean for Research.  After that, he moved to the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Selected Awards and Honors

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1995 Outstanding Teacher Award, Department of Chemical Engineering
1985-86  Outstanding Teacher Award, Society of Black Engineers
1964  Bronze Medal, University of Liege, Belgium
1964  Miedzynarodowy rok Korczakowski Medal, Poland
1960  Silver Medal, American Electroplater’s Society

Professional Activities

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U.S. Navy, Surface to air guided missile technology

Materials technology for epitaxial thin film transistors

Fulbright Lecturer, University of Liege, Belgium; Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw & Wroclaw; University of Aarhus, Denmark; Institute for Theoretical Physics, Copenhagen

Director, Project for the Reclamation of Lake Managua, Managua, Nicaragua

Program Director {for National Academy of Sciences} for technical and economic development planning, Costa Rica

Committee on Energy Resources for the Amazon, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Consultant to U.S. Senate Committees for Commerce and for Interior and Insular Affairs

Founder and President, Environmental Systems Corporation, Knoxville

Selected Publications

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Thomas, Carl O., “Airborne Remote Sensing Techniques for Oceanographic Data Acquisition,” Geologic Notes, South Carolina Division of Geology, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall, 1984).

Thomas, Carl O., “Alaskan Methanol Concept,” U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and U.S. Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, (March, 1976).

Thomas, Carl O., “Airborne Sensing for Landfill Site Evaluation,” Pollution Engineering 32-33, (November/December 1971).

Thomas, Carl O., “The Future of the Cultural Arts in Appalachia,” Public Affairs Series, No. 6, West Virginia Center for Appalachian Studies and Development, Morgantown, WV (1967).

Thomas, Carl O., Alstrup, Ole., “Kinetics of the Silicon-Silicontetrachloride Reaction in a Flow System,” J. Electrochem. Soc.  112 319 (1965).

Thomas, Carl O., Baker, B. B., “Detection and Estimation of Air-Borne Proteins by Pyrolysis to Hydrogen Cyanide,” Analy. Chem. 31 1391-93 (1958).

Koski, W. S., Thomas, Carl O., “Scintillatiions in the Diphenylpolyenes and Related Compounds,” J. Chem. Phys. 19 1286-90 (1951).

 

Contact Dr. Thomas

311 Dougherty Engineering Bldg.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-2200
Tel: (865) 974-2421