Thomas, John E.

Research

research overview

John is passionate about the promise of a sustainable and resilient life experience for future generations. His research interests explore the boundaries of engineering and social science to understand the dynamic relationships between human resilience, psychological development, and the resilience of complex socio-technical systems like critical infrastructure supporting community well-being including energy, water, transportation, communications and cyber-security. Areas of focus include the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions, capacities, and adaptive processes impacting how humans interact with and depend on complex technological systems amid natural / man-made disasters and catastrophic system failures. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of Resilience Engineering Institute—an organization dedicated to the dissemination of resilience knowledge, tools, and resources.

keywords

resilience, critical infrastructure, critical infrastructure resilience, human resilience, socio-technical systems, socio-ecological systems, community resilience, sustainable engineering, resilience engineering, entrepreneurship, digital transformation

Publications

selected publications

journal article
- Being Prepared to be Unprepared: Meaning Making is Critical for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems. Integral Review. 2020
- A resilience engineering approach to integrating human and socio-technical system capacities and processes for national infrastructure resilience. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. 2019
- Holistic Infrastructure Resilience Research Requires Multiple Perspectives, Not Just Multiple Disciplines. Infrastructures. 30-30. 2018

Teaching

courses taught

EMEA 5091 - Getting Started with Technology Startups
Primary Instructor - Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
This course will introduce the contemporary practice of entrepreneurship for engineers. Students will identify their driving purpose for creating a new startup and explore the fundamental tools and practice of entrepreneurship. They will develop the knowledge and skills for thinking and acting like an entrepreneur and gain insight about how to recognize new opportunities. The tools, resources, and methods introduced can be used to generate new product and service ideas that address real customer needs.
EMEA 5092 - Creating a Technology Startup Company
Primary Instructor - Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
This course will examine the core elements that make up the inner and outer workings of a startup company. Students will learn how to define, research, and segment markets and use that knowledge to develop viable business and revenue models. The models will be used to construct pro forma financial statements suitable for potential investors. Students will gain the knowledge and skills to build networks and teams and create a lean business plan of operations.
EMEA 5093 - Forming, Funding, and Launching a Technology Startup Company
Primary Instructor - Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
This course explores the key steps and processes involved with forming, funding, and launching a startup company. Students will learn about funding options and how to interpret investor needs and requirements. They will gain the knowledge and skills needed for creating and presenting viable business plans to potential investors. Students will explore topics related to company formation, legal issues relevant to startups, and map the key steps to launching, growing, and exiting a startup company.
EMEA 5231 - Resilience and Leadership: Concepts, Definitions, and Frameworks
Primary Instructor - Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
This course is part 1 of 3 that comprise the specialization �Resilience Engineering and Leadership in Crisis�. The course introduces the common terms, definitions, and concepts that characterize resilient systems. Frameworks for resilience engineering and leadership in crisis are applied to complex systems and the built environment. Learners will explore a holistic approach to critical infrastructure resilience and apply a threat assessment protocol to a project scenario.
EMEA 5232 - Resilience and Leadership: Tools, Methods, and Applications
Primary Instructor - Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
This course is Part 2 of 3 comprising the specialization �Resilience Engineering and Leadership in Crisis.� The course offers tools and methods for applying the concepts from Part 1 to various applications and disaster scenarios. Systems thinking, crisis management lifecycle, and organizational strategy are presented to help cultivate and strengthen crisis leadership and communication skills. Learners will assess the resilience of a complex system and create a crisis management plan.

EMEN 4050 - Leadership and Professional Skills
Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the essential skills required to become an effective leader/manager. Conduct personal development through exercises in communication and leadership effectiveness. Explore leadership styles, managing commitments, change management, negotiation, conflict resolution, organizational culture, emotional intelligence, team dynamics and business ethics.

EMEN 4830 - Special Topics
Primary Instructor - Spring 2021 / Spring 2022
May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours.

EMEN 5020 - Finance for Engineering Managers
Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Summer 2021 / Fall 2021 / Summer 2022 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
This course empowers technical managers to make better financial management decisions about issues like capital budgeting, project selection, financial planning, and working capital management. The course also covers topics essential to engineering managers communicating outside of engineering, including interpreting financial statements, the time value of money, and determining financial metrics of NPV and IRR in project valuation. Special topics covered include triple bottom line accounting and sustainability reporting as part of corporate risk management initiatives. Recommended prerequisites: beginning algebra and familiarity working with Excel spreadsheets.

EMEN 5094 - Technology Entrepreneurship
Primary Instructor - Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
This course is designed for engineers, project managers, and technical leaders interested in learning how to leverage technology to solve problems and meet emerging market demands. Students learn how to apply a holistic approach that engages an entrepreneurial mindset with methods like entrepreneurial systems thinking and opportunity pattern recognition to identify and address target customer needs. The course empowers students with the knowledge, skills, and methods needed to create and launch a new technology company.

EMEN 5230 - Resilience Engineering and Leadership in Crisis
Primary Instructor - Spring 2024
This course examines the qualities, concepts, and methodologies of resilience leadership amid conditions of chaos, uncertainty, and catastrophic breakdowns of complex social, ecological, and technological systems. The curriculum draws on topics from resilience policy, resilience engineering, crisis leadership, contemporary literature, and current events. These components collectively build a comprehensive understanding of resilience as a dynamic blend of processes embedded within and across complex systems like critical infrastructure essential to public health, safety, security, and well-being.

EMEN 5400 - Technical Product Development
Primary Instructor - Spring 2024
Product Development introduces contemporary methods like design thinking and sustainability for the circular economy to identify and create products and services that address verified customer needs and problems. By focusing on solutions and benefits offered, the course takes a project-based approach from ideation, concept development, and prototyping to customer validation, pricing, and productization. Students learn how to present their product concepts to senior management or potential investors and showcase their prototypes in a tradeshow-like setting.

EMEN 5830 - Special Topics
Primary Instructor - Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
May be repeated up to 9 credit hours.

ENVM 5002 - Analyzing Socio-Environmental Systems
Primary Instructor - Fall 2022
Learn about systems thinking and practice to address complex environmental challenges. Students will develop the confidence to use systems tools and ideas to push beyond reacting to immediate problems to see underlying patterns, design strategic interventions, and learn and adapt as systems change. Recommended restriction: MENV graduate students only.

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Background

education and training

Ph.D., Arizona State University 2017
M.B.A., Santa Clara University 2000
M.S., Georgia Institute of Technology 1986
B.S., University of California-Santa Barbara 1983

Other Profiles

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=8I6jvEkAAAAJ

VIVO

Positions

Research Areas