Thinker
Tom has had a lifelong fascination with thinking and the mechanics of thought. This has provided a focus for his work and study in computer science, artificial intelligence, object-oriented modeling, and programming language design. Recently Tom co-founded Black Dog Innovation to begin to publish and teach the thinking tools and techniques they have collected.

Teacher
In both industry and academia, teaching has always been a big part of Tom’s life. In industry, he spent eight years developing and teaching seminars in object-oriented programming, design, and thinking for many Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, MITRE, and Prudential Insurance. In academia, Tom spent five years as a professor of computer science at the University of the Pacific. As a consultant, he was the technical mentor on several major development projects, including Bank of America’s award-wining configuration management project.

Geek
Let’s admit it, Tom is a geek. He’s an expert programmer with exceptional skills in high-level programming languages such as Smalltalk and Lisp. He has designed and developed five programming languages, two for industry customers, two for research, and one just for fun. Tom understands technology and its impacts, has a deep knowledge of computers and information technology, and has done research in ubiquitous computing, artificial intelligence, and proactive human-computer interfaces.

Tom's most recent book, What Happens When People Think is designed to help thinking people everywhere become even better thinkers.

Tom was the coauthor of the three Quick Trip books, which focus on using Smalltalk and object-oriented concepts. The most recent of these, Squeak - A Quick Trip to ObjectLand has also been translated into Japanese.

Tom's most recent book, What Happens When People Think, co-authored with long-time collaborator Gene Korienek, is a book about thinking and thinking tools. It is designed to help thinking people everywhere become even better thinkers, improving their ability to make good decisions and create innovative solutions.

Tom holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado for his work on end-user programming of ubiquitous computationally-enriched materials.

You can also view Tom Wrensch's Vita.