ABOUT

Dr. John E. Thomas is Professor of Engineering Practice in the Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, and co-founder and Executive Director of the Resilience Engineering Institute. He spent thirty years in industry. He began as a senior RF systems engineer in defense electronics and in 1989 left to co-found a consumer electronics company, which he ran as CEO for eight years. He then held a director role at a wireless start-up and later served as managing director (the European equivalent of CEO) of a semiconductor start-up’s European R&D subsidiary, his second chief executive role. The last ten were in consulting and independent ventures. He returned to university in 2014, earned his PhD at Arizona State University in 2017, and has taught full time at CU Boulder since 2020.

John’s research explores the relationships between human resilience, psychological development, and the resilience of complex socio-technical systems such as critical infrastructure for energy, water, transportation, and communications. It focuses on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacities and adaptive processes that shape how people interact with and depend on technological systems. At CU Boulder he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in technology entrepreneurship, product development, finance, leadership, and resilience engineering. In 2026 he was selected for the Fulbright Specialist Program.

John holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Master of Business Administration with honors from Santa Clara University. His PhD is in Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering, from the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University.