Thomas Theis

Background

About Thomas Theis

Thomas N. Theis is Director of Innovation for Utopus Insights where he leads exploratory development of new software products that support renewable energy and the ongoing transition to a net-zero-carbon economy. Dr. Theis joined IBM in 1978 where he made important contributions to the understanding of electronic conduction in wide band-gap insulators. In 1982 he became manager of a group studying growth and properties of semiconductors and published extensively on materials and devices. From 1984 through 2015 he held various senior management and executive positions with IBM. In the mid-90's, as Sr. Manager, Silicon Science and Technology, he coordinated the transfer of copper interconnection technology from research to product development. The replacement of aluminum chip wiring by copper was an industry first, the biggest change in chip wiring technology in thirty years, and involved close collaboration between research, product development, and manufacturing organizations. He served as IBM’s strategist for exploratory research worldwide from 1998 to 2012 and as Director, Physical Sciences from 1998 to 2010, conceiving and initiating successful research programs in silicon nanophotonics and Josephson junction-based quantum computing, and championing research in nanoelectronics, exploratory memory devices, and applications of information technology to address societal needs in energy, infrastructure, and the environment. From 2010 – 2012, he organized new research projects aimed at greatly improved energy-efficiency in future computing systems. In 2012, he went on assignment from IBM to the Semiconductor Research Corporation to lead SRC’s Nanoelectronics Research Initiative, a private-public partnership funding university research aimed at new devices and architectures for computing. He joined Columbia University in 2016 as Professor of Practice in Electrical Engineering and Executive Director of the Columbia Nano Initiative. He retired from the university in 2018 to focus on independent research and technical consulting. He entered a long-term consulting agreement with Utopus Insights in 2019. He is a Fellow of the the American Physical Society (APS), and the 2015 recipient of the George E. Pake Prize of the APS. Specialties: Electronic Materials and Devices, Research Management, Technology Product Development, Renewable Energy Devices and Systems