{"506771":{"#nid":"506771","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Faculty Spotlight: Scientist Spotlight with Valerie Thomas","body":[{"value":"\u003Ch2 data-canvas-width=\u0022257.59880000000004\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EE-mail interview conducted by Allison Feldman, FAS\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Valerie Thomas is the Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems in the School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy. She is also a member of the FAS Board of Experts. Dr. Thomas\u0027s research interests are energy systems, sustainability, industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy. Current research projects include the environmental impacts of biofuels and electricity system policy and planning. Dr. Thomas is a member of the USDA\/DOE Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. In 2004-2005, she was the American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow. Dr. Thomas is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society, and has been a Member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board. She has previously worked at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and at Princeton University\u2019s Environmental Institute. Dr. Thomas received a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat made you want to become a scientist or engineer and what is your primary field of focus?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI became a scientist because I was fascinated by quantum physics. I wanted to know about it and I wanted to know more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut now I am working on a very pragmatic and applied problem: how to create a sustainable energy system. It\u2019s an easy problem. That is, we can solve this and I am confident we will. The challenge is in how gracefully we get there, and the details of the solution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI keep wanting to get back to theoretical physics. But I love working on energy problems and with so much work to do currently, I haven\u2019t yet found a way to do both.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat was your first science experiment?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGreat question. It made me think: What makes something a science experiment, and what makes it mine?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy first experiments were engineering experiments \u2013 about making things rather than discovering the world. As a child, I liked to design and make things \u2013 out of fabric, paper, yarn, paint \u2013 and I liked to explore and build forts in the woods.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo, what makes an experiment \u201cmine\u0022? It\u2019s \u201cmine\u201d simply when I create it and carry it out. In high school \u0026nbsp;and college, all the science experiments were with a partner, so to me, that doesn\u2019t count. Finally in graduate school, we had a lab course in which we had to carry out the experiment alone, by ourselves. That was great; I worked on superconductivity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat advice would you give scientists and other technically-trained people in how to apply their knowledge and experience to societal issues and\/or to educate policymakers?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI would specifically like to address this question in the context of climate change and energy challenges. In my view, there has been too narrow a focus on the science of climate change and on the impacts of climate change, at the expense of a focus on how we can change our energy and industrial systems. There is huge potential for us to change our systems for the better; there is a very positive message and opportunity here.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy advice is to bring forward any of the myriad innovations, and to convey the happy enthusiasm that we have for continuing to be creative and innovative.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat advice would you give someone trying to break into your field or the scientific and technical worlds in general?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKeep a deep and intense commitment. Make sure to have lots of failures, and remember that it is really fun. Don\u2019t be afraid.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDo you find that people react in a certain way when you tell them you\u2019re a scientist? Do they make any assumptions?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI find that people assume I\u2019m a rigid, narrow-minded, boring, uncreative person, focused on the immediately practical, with no vision, poetry, or spirit. And they definitely assume it would not be fun to ask me much about what I do.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat do you personally find to be the most rewarding and the most irritating parts of studying science?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI like to sink down into a problem, to really work at it hard and thoroughly, and to come up with a new way of thinking (or to at least slightly change how people understand the questions and the solutions).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI also really like working with a wide variety of people \u2013 on research projects, in class, in committees \u2013 and finding ways to get to better and more satisfying outcomes \u2013 whether in my teaching or in the research we are doing, or in how our scientific and engineering institutions are set up. People don\u2019t realize how wildly social science can be.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe most irritating parts? Hm, here\u2019s a list: boring talks, having to sit in my chair for too long, slow computers, unhealthy boxed lunches, so many airplane flights\u2026\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat do you believe is FAS\u2019s greatest strength and how can the organization take advantage of it?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFAS\u2019s greatest strength is its clear and consistent record of focus on science and technology issues of international security. This provides a platform, both for building dialogue with policy makers and for providing opportunities for scientists and engineers to engage with policymakers. FAS could further develop this potential by finding more scientists and engineers, from different locations and institutions, who could use FAS as a bridge to communicate with policy makers and the public.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are the top issues that FAS should focus on in the next five years?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENuclear power and nuclear proliferation, globally. I used to work in the area of nuclear arms control, and in that field, the challenges of nuclear proliferation are well understood. Now I work in the energy field, and, strangely, nuclear proliferation is generally seen as \u201cout-of-scope.\u201d Developing an integrated understanding of nuclear energy and nuclear proliferation risks as part of the energy future is something that FAS is very well suited to do.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEnergy solutions, globally: New approaches to buildings and transportation for large, system-level efficiencies. New technologies \u2013 piezo-electrics, thermo-electrics, energy storage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENuclear problems have been and continue to be a challenge that FAS can address comprehensively and with credibility. Energy solutions \u2013 as mind-blowingly different as nuclear energy was in the 1930s \u2013 are what scientists and engineers are working on now; their potential is what we desperately need to communicate to our policy makers and the public\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EComplete\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E this \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Esentence: \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EScience \u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003Eis \u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003Evital\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E because ..\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScience is vital because we are exploring the nature of the universe. It is part of what makes \u003Cem\u003Eus \u003C\/em\u003Evital.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThis installment features Q\u0026amp;A\u0027s with prominent FAS-affiliated scientists and engineers. Dr. Valerie Thomas is the Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems in the School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy. She is also a member of the FAS Board of Experts. Current research projects include the environmental impacts of biofuels and electricity system policy and planning.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Q\u0026A with prominent FAS-affiliated scientists and engineer"}],"uid":"28766","created_gmt":"2016-02-26 14:15:24","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:53","author":"Shelley Wunder-Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-02-26T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2016-02-26T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"506751":{"id":"506751","type":"image","title":"Valerie Thomas, ISyE Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems","body":null,"created":"1456765200","gmt_created":"2016-02-29 17:00:00","changed":"1475895268","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:28","alt":"Valerie Thomas, ISyE Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems","file":{"fid":"204861","name":"valerie082b_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/valerie082b_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/valerie082b_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":973860,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/valerie082b_0_0.jpg?itok=BHGWCDpU"}}},"media_ids":["506751"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"807","name":"environment"},{"id":"171593","name":"ESNS"},{"id":"39961","name":"FAS"},{"id":"8681","name":"Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"166890","name":"sustainability"},{"id":"1135","name":"valerie thomas"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:shelley.wunder-smith@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EShelley Wunder-Smith\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWriter\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStewart School for Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404.385.4745\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["shelley.wunder-smith@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}