Thomas K. Gaylord received his Bachelor of Science in Physics and Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla. He completed his PhD in electrical engineering at Rice University.

He has been a professor at Georgia Tech since 1972. He is currently the Julius Brown chair and Regents’ Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In his time there, he has helped to develop the optics educational and research programs for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In addition to authoring over 300 technical journal publications, he holds 25 patents. He is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA, SPIE, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2005, he received the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal “for innovative teaching which has brought the latest research results alive for students for thirty years and for his significant contributions to establishing Georgia Tech’s Optics and Photonics programs.”