James B. Thomas, senior associate dean in The Smeal College
of Business Administration and professor of management, has been recommended
as dean of the new School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) to
the Board of Trustees. The board will act on the recommendation at its May
14 meeting at University Park.
Thomas has served as chair of the implementation committee of IST, in charge of curriculum development and the general design of the new school since it was approved by the Board of Trustees last September. He also was a member of the strategic planning group that recommended the creation of the school.
Thomas said the committee has been working with corporate partners, employers of Penn State graduates and top executives of Fortune 500 companies to design a curriculum that will educate a new breed of information science professionals. IST will open this fall for 100 incoming freshmen with a baccalaureate degree program at University Park. In addition, either the associate or baccalaureate degree programs will be offered at a number of other campus locations beginning in fall 1999. The graduate programs will begin accepting students in the fall 2000. Within five years, plans call for about 800 baccalaureate students and 200 graduate students to be enrolled at University Park and about 1,000 enrolled at other Penn State campuses.
A specialist in strategic management, organizational analysis and information technology, Thomas is the author or co-author of more than 100 articles, book chapters, reviews and presentations. This work represents two major themes: cognition associated with top management team decision making and the relationships between firm performance and the alignment of business and information technology strategies.
In the past 10 years, Thomas also has received several research grants, many from IBM. He has been named Outstanding Teacher of the Year on three occasions while in The Smeal College. Thomas currently serves as a chair or co-chair to three doctoral committees and has been a member of 21 others over the last six years. He also has been involved extensively in executive education around the world.
He joined Penn State in 1987 after having taught at the University of Texas at Austin for two years and Florida State University, Tallahassee, for one year. He also was director of special projects, responsible for information technology strategic planning for the Office of the Texas Secretary of State in 1985-86. From 1980 to 1982 he was director of information management systems for the Florida Department of State and from 1982 to 1983, he was head analyst for a joint, select committee of the Florida State Legislature and wrote legislation on the management of information technologies.
A 1974 graduate from Penn State in pre-law, Thomas received a master's degree in government from Florida State University and his doctorate in strategic management from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988.