Sylvia Wilson Thomas

Sylvia Wilson Thomas is an electrical engineer, inventor, academic and national leader whose career of more than thirty years has transformed the frontier of implantable medical devices and engineering education in the United States. Born on May 27, 1966, she obtained her baccalaureate and master's degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University and her doctorate in the same discipline from the historic Howard University, in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Thomas holds 13 U.S. patents in the field of bioelectronic integration for medical applications. Its most notable innovation is a new generation miniaturized biosensor that incorporates a turbine generator capable of converting body fluids and biomechanical energy into electricity to power internal devices —sensors, artificial organs, valves, microactors—, eliminating the need for recurrent replacement surgeries. He also developed a biocompatible silicon carbide (SiC) antenna that opens up unprecedented perspectives in long-term human care, from neural implants to deep tissue cancer therapies. In 2024, she was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame and was profiled in EE Times magazine in the article “I Don't Think It Gets Any Better than Sylvia”.

Since 2021, Dr. Thomas has served as Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of South Florida (USF), leading a research portfolio of more than $735 million annually, and as president and CEO of the USF Research Foundation. She is the founder of the AMBIR—Advanced Materials, Membrane Bio and Integration Research—and co-director of three National Science Foundation REU sites. He has collaborated with Bell Labs, IBM, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble and has promoted academic alliances in Italy, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Portugal, South Korea, Mexico, Panama and South Africa.

Their commitment to expanding participation in STEM is equally extraordinary. She was appointed by the Florida Senate as the first female president of the Florida Education Fund; chaired the AAES Engineering Workforce Commission; served for five years on the Black Girls Code national board; and has been a speaker before the IEEE, the NSF, the Society of Women Engineers and the United Nations. Her awards include the 2016 STEM Woman of the Year, the Women in Leadership and Philanthropy Award 2018, her inclusion in the Florida Trend's 500 Most Influential Business Leaders 2022, and her status as a Fellow of AIMBE, NAI, AAAS and ASEMFL. Dr. Thomas embodies with singular fullness the ideal of the Pan-American Academy: technical excellence, moral leadership and sustained commitment to the common good.

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