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Valerie L. Thomas (born February 8, 1943) is an American scientist and inventor. A project manager and data analyst at NASA, she was responsible for developing the Landsat satellite program, the first of its kind used to transfer images from space back to Earth. She also invented the illusion transmitter, which uses concave mirrors to relay three-dimensional images. Her illusion transmitter technology has been used in NASA imaging, in medical devices for surgery, and in modern television and video screens.

Valerie Thomas was born in February 1943 in Maryland. She became interested in technology as a child in the 50s, after observing her father tinkering with their black and white television and seeing the mechanical parts inside the TV. Despite her interest, Thomas was not encouraged to explore science, as her friends, family members, and teachers all thought electronics were for ‘boys.’ At the age of 8, she checked a book called The Boy's First Book On Electronics out of the local library, beginning to teach herself the basics of tech. Yet in her teenage years, she attended a newly integrated all-girls high school that downplayed math and science as acceptable careers for women.

After graduating from high school, Thomas attended Morgan State University as one of only two women majoring in physics. She excelled in her mathematics and science courses at Morgan State, and after graduating with a degree in physics, accepted a position as a mathematical data analyst at NASA in 1964. She developed data systems to support satellite operations control centers from 1964 to 1970, & oversaw the creation of the Landsat program from 1970 to 1981. Landsat worked in the pursuit of being able to visualize Earth from space, & is the longest-running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. She was also one of the image processing specialists who facilitated the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment, or LACIE, which was a project that showed for the first time that crop monitoring could be done with satellite imagery.

In 1976, she attended a scientific exhibition where she viewed an optical illusion using concave mirrors. The illusion involved a light bulb appearing lit even though it had been removed from its socket, and inspired Thomas to study flat and concave mirror images. In 1977, she conducted a concave mirror experiment on if it were possible to present & transmit realistic, three-dimensional images, resulting in the creation of the illusion transmitter, a device that has improved the quality of television and video, & is widely used in today’s cell phones and electronic devices. On October 21, 1980, she obtained the patent for the illusion transmitter.

She served as the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN) project manager from 1986 to 1990, growing SPAN from a scientific network with about 100 computer nodes to one connecting about 2,700 computer nodes worldwide. In 1990, SPAN became a major part of NASA's science networking, and the backbone of today's interconnected Internet.

At the end of August 1995, she retired from NASA. She is a mentor for youth through such organizations as the National Technical Association and Women in Science & Engineering. For her achievements, Thomas has received numerous awards including the Goddard Space Flight Center Award of Merit & NASA's Equal Opportunity Medal.

#HiddenFigures #ValerieThomas

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Links:

A Face Behind Landsat Images - Meet Dr. Valerie L. Thomas:
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VALERIE THOMAS, Illusion Transmitter:
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Little Known Black History Fact - Valerie Thomas:
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Valerie L. Thomas Retires:
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Valerie Thomas Biography:
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Dr. Valerie L. Thomas: The Face Behind Landsat Images:
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