Valerie Thomas

Valerie Thomas is an American data analyst and engineer who built her career at the United States space agency NASA. After earning a degree in physics from Morgan State University she worked as a mathematical data analyst and went on to manage the development of the image-processing system for Landsat, the first satellite to send images of the Earth from space. A scientific exhibit she saw in 1976 inspired her to experiment with optical illusions, and from 1977 she worked on an illusion transmitter that uses a concave mirror at both the sending and receiving end to produce a lifelike image. She received a patent for the device in 1980, and researchers have since explored it for uses such as surgical tools and displays. She later managed the Space Physics Analysis Network and served as associate chief of the Space Science Data Operations Office before retiring in 1995.