Sterling Thomas

Dr. Sterling Thomas is GAO’s Chief Scientist in Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics. Prior to joining GAO, he was the Chief Scientist at Noblis, a Reston, VA based research institute overseeing their applied research programs for the past 13 years. Sterling has also served as a principal investigator for research programs funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. His work has included creating new methods regarding synthetic biology, strategies for decoupling qubits for improving error correction in quantum computing, methods for using artificial intelligence to detect decentralized coordinated cyber-attacks, and network-based optimization algorithms to detect abnormalities in public equities markets. Sterling also served as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer and collaborated with the institute’s professional development department to create data science and cyber analytics training programs in partnership with George Mason University (GMU) and George Washington University. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor at GMU, sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board at GMU’s College of Engineering and Computing, along with sitting on Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Biological Data Science Advisory Board.