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Thomas G. West
Thomas G. West is the author of the award-winning book In the Mind's Eye, now in its 14th printing. The book was recognized by the American Library Association with a gold seal as “an outstanding academic title” (1997) and, later, as one of the "best of the best" for the year (1998). The book was published in Japanese translation as Geniuses Who Hated School. A Chinese translation was published in May 2004. According to one reviewer: "Every once in a while a book comes along that turns one's thinking upside down. In the Mind's Eye is just such a book. . . ." The book argues that major advances in computer visualization technologies promise to transform education and the workplace -- greatly increasing the perceived value of visual talents for understanding patterns in complex systems in business, the sciences and other fields. Many dyslexics have high visual talents and are already leaders in certain areas of technological innovation as well as science and business -- as technological change makes their distinctive visual strengths more and more valuable just as their areas of language weakness become less and less important.
In connection with In the Mind's Eye, the author has been invited to provide presentations for scientific, medical, art and business groups in the U.S. and overseas, including groups in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Hong Kong and Taiwan. West has organized conferences and consulted on computer visualization of information for the US National Library of Medicine as well as for business leaders and media innovators. For years he has written a column on visualization issues for a quarterly publication of the international professional society for computer graphics artists and technologists. These columns have been turned into a new book to be published in November 2004: Thinking Like Einstein -- Returning to Our Visual Roots with the Emerging Revolution in Computer Information Visualization.
Prior to writing In the Mind's Eye, Mr. West worked with engineering and consulting organizations where he managed a large international research and training program, helped to redesign a national computer information system and integrated strategic planning for several federal government agencies, with periodic travel to the Middle East and the Far East. Based in Washington, D.C., West has recently begun work on another new book, this one dealing with visual thinking and dyslexia in scientific families -- focusing, in part, on one such family that includes winners of four Nobel Prizes. Mr. West has appeared on TV programs broadcast by the BBC, by PBS and by UK Channel 4. Articles reviewing or citing In the Mind's Eye have appeared in Vanity Fair, Computers in Physics, The American Bar Association Journal, The Boston Globe, The Roeper Review, The Financial Times, The Times Educational Supplement, The Independent, The Times, The Evening Standard, The Oxford Mail, The Australian, Kagaku Asahi Science Magazine and Nikkei Daily among others.
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Last Update: 9-29-04
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