{"id":509152,"date":"2022-01-31T08:51:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T13:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=509152"},"modified":"2022-02-01T12:30:45","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T17:30:45","slug":"john-thomas-new-chapter-illustrious-career-509152","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/john-thomas-new-chapter-illustrious-career-509152\/","title":{"rendered":"At age 80, John Thomas writes new chapter in an illustrious career"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rochester professor emeritus and new American Astronomical Society fellow now explores the brain\u2019s waste disposal system.<\/h2>\n

John (\u201cJack\u201d) Thomas officially retired in 2014, but the honors keep coming.<\/p>\n

The professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Rochester<\/a> was recently recognized as a fellow<\/a> of the American Astronomical Society<\/a> (AAS). The society, which has existed since 1899, began recognizing fellows three years ago. The AAS is honoring Thomas not only for his service and leadership, but also for five decades of groundbreaking contributions to solar and stellar physics, \u201cincluding advancements in our understanding of the behavior of magnetic fields and theoretical and observational studies of sunspots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not content to rest on his laurels, Thomas, now 80, has started a new chapter in his illustrious career. Lured from retirement, he is pursuing an altogether different but equally groundbreaking area of research.<\/p>\n

Thomas, who is also professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace sciences, is helping Maiken Nedergaard<\/a>, professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University\u2019s Medical Center, expand on her breakthrough discoveries about the brain\u2019s glymphatic system. The system, which comprises a plumbing network that piggybacks on the brain\u2019s blood vessels and pumps cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) through the brain\u2019s tissue, flushes away waste.<\/p>\n

The collaboration also involves two of Thomas\u2019s colleagues in the Department of Mechanical Engineering<\/a>, associate professor Doug Kelley and assistant professor Jessica Shang.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole thing has been absolutely amazing,\u201d says Thomas. \u201cI have been reborn as a neuroscientist. I am learning so many things about biology that I never knew about. It\u2019s just been wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever-expanding collaborations yielded solar discoveries<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"John
Thomas in his office circa 2003. (University of Rochester photo \/ Elizabeth Lamark)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thomas was interested in astronomy as a child, looking at stars and planets through a small telescope with his father.<\/p>\n

However, his interest in astrophysics was sparked during his doctoral work on magnetohydrodynamic turbulence at Purdue University and a subsequent NATO postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge from 1966 to 1967.<\/p>\n

After joining what was then called the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Sciences at Rochester, Thomas began collaborating on theoretical modeling of fluid flows on the sun with Alfred Clark, professor of mechanical engineering, of mathematics, and, later, of biomedical engineering.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Thomas\u2019s collaborations expanded to include colleagues in the Department of Physics and Astronomy<\/a> at Rochester, including Hugh Van Horn, Adam Frank, and Eric Blackman. He also worked with researchers at the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico, the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, and the Laboratory for Space Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics in Madrid, among other institutions.<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s main research focus was the sun\u2019s magnetic field and how it gives rise to sunspots on the sun\u2019s surface. He modeled the structure and dynamics of sunspots, including the motion of waves across them and the flow of material inside. In the early 1980s, Thomas originated the concept of probing beneath sunspots by observing acoustic oscillations\u2014essentially \u201csunspot seismology\u201d\u2014to gain previously unknown information about the sunspots\u2019 structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the work I did with my colleague Nigel Weiss (University of Cambridge),\u201d Thomas says. \u201cHe and I wrote a book together for Cambridge Press called Sunspots and Starspots<\/em><\/a>, published in 2008. A lot of the work we did is described there.\u201d Thomas spent sabbatical years at Cambridge and Oxford in England, and he is a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford.<\/p>\n

\"Book
Sunspots and Starspots<\/em> by John H. Thomas and Nigel O. Weiss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1993, Thomas received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his research on solar and stellar magnetic fields.<\/p>\n

He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2000 for \u201cmajor contributions to solar magnetohydrodynamics.\u201d And in 2007, Thomas was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for elucidating the physics of the sun and other stars, and for his broader contributions to the solar community. Most notably, Thomas served for 10 years as scientific editor of The Astrophysical Journal, the foremost journal in the field. He also chaired the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society from 1995 to 1997.<\/p>\n

At Rochester, Thomas served as an associate dean for graduate studies in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (now the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences) and then as the University Dean of Graduate Studies for eight years.<\/p>\n

All of this would be more than enough to constitute a remarkable career.<\/p>\n

But then in late 2016\u2014two years after he retired\u2014Thomas received an email from Maiken Nedergaard.<\/p>\n

Cancer diagnosis spurs return to research<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A rapid series of discoveries from Nedergaard\u2019s lab four years earlier showed that the brain has its own unique waste removal system. Moreover, this glymphatic system is primarily active while we sleep. The latter discovery was selected by Science<\/em> magazine as one of 2015\u2019s top 10 \u201cbreakthrough\u201d scientific achievements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nedergaard asked Thomas to help her research group better understand the microfluidics involved in this glymphatic cleansing system. He agreed, and immediately contacted his colleague, Douglas Kelley, whose research group had already developed algorithms to track particle flows in fluids. The algorithms could be readily applied to Nedergaard\u2019s study.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis instincts for solving scientific puzzles and interpersonal challenges are just excellent.\u201d<\/div>\n

Thomas says there were two motivations for him to come out of retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fluid dynamics interested me,\u201d he says. Yet there was a strong personal motivation as well: his wife had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer that they both knew to be incurable. The glymphatic system offers possible pathways for getting drugs to the brain, and perhaps eventually providing better treatment for future patients with glioblastoma and other brain diseases, Thomas says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife was very pleased to see me possibly getting back into research, that I would have this to keep me busy in retirement,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cAnd she was right on the mark. It was really a big help in dealing with her loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the collaboration with Nedergaard started in early 2017, Thomas has worked with Kelley on seven published papers and two more currently under review, and with Nedergaard on several other published papers. He has also published a single-author paper on brain fluids and recently submitted another.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, Thomas is surprised that Nedergaard contacted him, \u201cbecause I had done things on this huge astrophysical scale, at kind of the opposite extreme of the work she is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelley is glad that she did.<\/p>\n

Thomas is \u201chighly productive and tremendously generous with his time,\u201d Kelley says. \u201cHe attends biweekly meetings with our research teams. His insights are a tremendous help to students, postdocs, and faculty alike. With so much experience, his instincts for solving scientific puzzles and interpersonal challenges are just excellent. It\u2019s an honor to have him as a mentor and colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack is unarguably a leader in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Clad
Thomas shakes hands with then-Hajim School dean Robert Clark during the school\u2019s 2014 diploma ceremony. (University of Rochester photo \/ Keith Walters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The perks of academia: \u2018opportunities to just keep learning\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Thomas says his career has been a testament to the unique opportunities that academia offers to pursue \u201ca lifetime of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the courses he taught fell outside his primary research area, requiring him to continually refresh and update his knowledge of basic subjects, such as fluid dynamics, plasma physics, and thermodynamics. \u201cThere\u2019s a joke among professors that if you want to learn a subject, volunteer to teach it, because then you\u2019re forced to learn it. But to me that was just a delight,\u201d Thomas says.<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s own undergraduate degree at Purdue was in engineering sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, basically I was an applied mathematician,\u201d he says. \u201cBut then I started doing astrophysics. I had to learn about that field, and then geophysics. I later did some research on lake circulation in Lake Ontario, some oceanography, worked on convection in the earth\u2019s mantle, and then broader aspects of solar and stellar physics. And now I\u2019m learning brain anatomy, and all sorts of things,\u201d Thomas says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what comes with the academic life. There are always opportunities to just keep learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read more about our people<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n

\"HarveyHarvey Alter\u2019s Nobel Prize honors a half-century quest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Nobel laureate\u2019s work as an NIH hematologist led to profound improvements in blood transfusion safety and starkly reduced transmission of a potentially deadly virus.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"BethBeth Greenwood \u201922 in a league of her own<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The mechanical engineering major continues to break boundaries for women in baseball. She\u2019s played for Rochester\u2019s varsity team, trains with the US national women\u2019s squad, and will appear in an upcoming TV show on Amazon Prime.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"DavidNorthwestern University dean named provost at Rochester<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

David Figlio\u2014whose research and academic leadership cuts across economics, education, and social policy\u2014will become Rochester\u2019s chief academic officer in July.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rochester professor emeritus and new American Astronomical Society fellow now explores the brain\u2019s waste disposal system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":509172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[486,23312,24992,18662,29752,18632,8366,16072],"class_list":["post-509152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-awards","tag-department-of-mechanical-engineering","tag-department-of-neurology","tag-department-of-physics-and-astronomy","tag-douglas-kelley","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-maiken-nedergaard","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAt age 80, John Thomas writes new chapter in an illustrious career<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Rochester professor John Thomas, a new 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