Michael B. Thomas is a botanist whose specialization is bioinformatics and its application towards the documentation and preservation of bio-cultural knowledge. He has a background in Forestry, Horticulture and Bioinformatics. He has a PhD from the Department of Botany at the University of Florida. His dissertation focusing on the ethnopharmacoeia of the Pataxo, Indigenous group in Bahia, Brazil.

Dr. Thomas's research and teaching interests include ethnobotany, museum informatics, and computer supported cooperative work. His current research focuses digital documentation for biological informatics, floristics data and digital library development for Natural History museum collections (herbaria), consortia building, and the useability of information retrieval systems as potential collaborative tools for documenting traditional knowledge. He is a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an affiliate with the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. He has served as a consultant on numerous development projects in the Pacific Islands, including Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and in Nepal, Ghana, French Polynesia, Kosovo, and Guatemala. His experience with donor agencies includes USAID, Winrock International, GTZ, FAO, GCIAR, and the United Nations.

Recent Presentations
Persistence of Memory: Digital Preservation
Lyman Museum
February 25, 2008