# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/valerie-thomas
# Generated: 2026-08-14T08:26:42.613Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/valerie-thomas"
name: "Valerie Thomas"
slug: "valerie-thomas"
description: "Valerie L. Thomas is an American data scientist and inventor. She invented the illusion transmitter, for which she received a patent in 1980. She was responsible for developing the digital media formats that image processing systems used in the early years of NASA's Landsat program. Being born in Baltimore, Maryland during racial segregation, Thomas had to overcome many barriers to graduate from Morgan State University. She graduated with honors in 1964 with a degree in physics. She went on the work at NASA for 31 years which included leadership on multiple projects like the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) and Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN). After retiring in 1995, Thomas continued to mentor underrepresented youth in STEM fields. She was induced into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2018 which recognized her contributions to satellite communication and remote sensing technology."
tagline: "American scientist and inventor"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/NASA_photo_of_data_scientist_Valerie_L._Thomas.gif?width=1200"
gender: "female"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1943-02-08"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           48.7
  momentum:             0
  historical:           14.71631066666666
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A_%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3"
    title: "فاليري توماس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%89_%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3"
    title: "فاليرى توماس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomasov%C3%A1"
    title: "Valerie Thomasová"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas_(sciencisto)"
    title: "Valerie Thomas (sciencisto)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%DB%8C_%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3"
    title: "والری توماس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B5%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%B2%E0%B3%86%E0%B2%B0%E0%B2%BF_%E0%B2%A5%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%AE%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D"
    title: "ವ್ಯಾಲೆರಿ ಥಾಮಸ್"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas"
    title: "Valerie Thomas"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21469"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump