BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Michael Bradley Thomas was born on August 31, 1965, in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in forest resource management from Virginia Tech in 1987. Following graduation he worked in the forestry industry for the Chesapeake Corporation in northern Virginia, Westvaco in Walterboro, South Carolina and Environmental Consultants, Inc. in Southampton, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1989, he volunteered to serve in the United States Peace Corps and was assigned to the Kingdom of Tonga, South Pacific. From 1989 - 1993 he managed the Diversified Fruit Tree Development Project under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. His travels include American Samoa, Canada, Cook Islands, Fiji, Mexico, New Zealand, U.S. Virgin Islands and Western Samoa. He has been studying in the Horticultural Science Department at the University of Florida since the summer of 1993 and will receive a Master of Science degree in December 1995.