Anthony William Thomas

Anthony William (Tony) Thomas AC, FAA (born 15 November 1949) is an Australian physicist, Professor of Physics at the University of Adelaide since 1984 and Elder Professor of Physics since 1990.[1]

Thomas was born in Adelaide and educated at Adelaide Boys High School where he won the Thomas Price Scholarship (for the top student in the South Australian Leaving Examinations) in 1966. He was awarded the BHP Medal in 1967 as the top student in South Australia in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in the (new) Matriculation Examinations. [2] He completed a Ph.D. at Flinders University in 1973.[1]

From 1973 to 1975 Thomas was Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia, then from 1975 to 1976 was Scientific Associate of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. From 1976 to 1982 he was a researcher at TRIUMF (Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics) in Vancouver; from 1983 he was Senior Research Scientist there.[1]

In 1983 Thomas accepted an offer of the Chair of Physics at the University of Adelaide; he started there in February 1984. In 1990 he was appointed Elder Professor of Physics at the University of Adelaide, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. From 1991 to 1993 he was President of the Australian Institute of Physics.[2] In 2014, he was named as the South Australian Scientist of the Year for his work on the structure of subatomic matter.[3]

Thomas was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Australia Day Honours for "eminent service to scientific education and research, particularly in the field of nuclear and particle physics, through academic leadership roles."[4]