Research Scientist, UC San Diego
Thomas A. DeFanti, Ph.D., is a principal investigator at the Qualcomm Institute, part of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, University of California, San Diego, and serves as an advisor to Louis Fox, CENIC's president and CEO. Dr. DeFanti is also a distinguished professor emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, since 2004. He received the 1988 ACM Outstanding Contribution Award and was appointed an ACM Fellow in 1994. He shares the recognition with EVL director Daniel J. Sandin for conceiving the award-winning CAVE virtual reality theater in 1991 and has been active in regional, national, and international networking R&E for over 30 years.