Joshua D. Thomas has been appointed assistant professor of physics at Clarkson University.

He received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees and his Ph.D., all in physics, from the University of Toledo with a concentration in astrophysics for his bachelor’s degree and graduated magna cum laude with departmental honors.

Before accepting this post, he was a visiting assistant professor at Clarkson and a teaching and graduate assistant at the University of Toledo.

Northern New York residents had the opportunity to hear him speak in December 2012 at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake. His talk, “The Comets Are Coming, The Comets Are Coming," was via an invitation from the Adirondack Public Observatory. He also gave two public lectures on astronomy as part of the “Science Cafe" series in Canton and Potsdam in February.

His research interests include laboratory astrophysics, numerical simulation, observational astronomy, and spectroscopy. While pursuing his studies in Ohio, some of his research experience was with observational spectroscopy and radiative transfer simulation, accelerator-based atomic physics, young stellar objects, and laboratory astrophysics.

Thomas has written academic articles and made numerous presentations and scholarly talks on his field over the years.

He received scholarships and honors while at the University of Toledo, including Astronomy Bag Lunch Seminar, Best Graduate Student Presentation, Fall 2011; Ed Foster Graduate Scholarship, 2011; Sigma Xi Research Symposium, First Place in Poster Division, 2004; Ohio Space Grant Consortium, Senior Space Grant 2003-2004; and Ohio Space Grant Consortium, Junior Space Grant, 2002-2003.