Donald W. Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald "Don" William Thomas (July 1953 – May 30, 2009) was a Canadian university administrator and ecologist specialising in ecophysiology (particularly of bats). At the time of his death, he was dean of the Université de Sherbrooke faculty of sciences.
Thomas grew up in Montreal[1] and studied at Lower Canada College, before moving out of Quebec. He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton in 1975, his Master's from Carleton University studying animal ecology three years later, and his Ph.D. in tropical ecology from the University of Aberdeen in 1984. He briefly worked at the University of Washington before a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) fellowship brought him to Sherbrooke's department of Biology in 1985.[2]
"When I arrived at Sherbrooke in 1992 as a young professor dropping in from Ontario, I was a bit worried: how well could I integrate and learn French? Don's example—and accent—were inspiring."
At Sherbrooke he rapidly rose to the status of full professor, "a status usually awarded around mid-career",[2] and in 2005 was named dean of the faculty of science; he had just been reappointed for a second term at the time of his death.[3] A native speaker of English, Thomas never lost a strong accent, about which he was good-humored, and which never got in the way of clarity in his teaching.[2] Although he studied an array of topics, his main subject of studies had long been bats, which were the subject of his Master's thesis, his Ph.D. dissertation, and his postdoc, and had attracted for him the nickname "Batman".[2][3]
For a number of years Thomas had been traveling to Corsica to study blue tits; he died suddenly there from a stroke shortly after his arrival in May 2009.[2][3] He had two sons with Marie-Hélène Poulin,[2] a preschool-education teacher.[citation needed] The pair were in the habit of inviting colleagues and students to their home for friendly dinners after events such as seminars and dissertation defences.[2]
