Brandishing uncommon reserves of self-knowledge and financial apathy Jim Thomas, abandoned his successful campaign through the worlds of software design, management, and marketing to start an academic career at the age of 39. This oft-questioned decision received some external justification when Jim won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to assist his pursuit of a Ph.D. in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Jim was one of only 21 students nationwide to receive this honor in 2004, and one of only five who was not attending one of a particular triumvirate of schools. Jim finished all his classes with a GPA he could only dream of back in his Schaefer-scented salad days, and passed his written preliminary exam last year. As for the dissertation...work continues. His latest topic is situating scientific inquiry learning within an environment of intelligently-planned interactive narrative. His wife and three boys anxiously await the day they can call him Doctor. Wait, that's not quite right. He anxiously awaits the day he can begin to demand that his wife and kids call him Doctor. His wife anxiously awaits the day he gets a job again. His kids are all about the shoulder rides (see photo).
