Short Bio -- Thomas G. West

I am meeting some new people lately -- so wanted a short one-page bio here to give them an idea of what I have been trying to do over the years. Saving a lot of slow two-finger typing. -- TGW

Biographical Sketch -- Thomas G. West

Thomas Gifford West is the author of three books. His first book -- In the Mind’s Eye: Creative Visual Thinkers, Gifted Dyslexics and The Rise of Visual Technologies -- was released in a paperback edition July 1, 2020. The book includes a Foreword by Oliver Sacks, MD, who says “In the Mind's Eye brings out the special problems of people with dyslexia, but also their strengths, which are so often over looked. . . . It stands alongside Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind as a testament to the range of human talent and possibility.” 

Awarded a gold seal by the Association of College and Research Libraries of the American Library Association, the book was recognized as one of the “best of the best” for the year (in their broad psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience category). According to one reviewer: “Every once in a while a book comes along that turns one's thinking upside down. In the Mind's Eye is just such a book.” 

In the Mind’s Eye was published in Japanese translation as Geniuses Who Hated School. The book has also been translated into Chinese and Korean. Mr. West has been invited to provide presentations for scientific, medical, art, design, computer and business groups in the U.S. and 19 other countries, including groups in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Dubai-UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and twelve European countries.

West’s second book is Thinking Like Einstein -- Returning to Our Visual Roots with the Emerging Revolution in Computer Information Visualization. This book is based on five years of regular columns that he wrote for the in-house members’ publication of ACM-SIGGRAPH -- the international computer graphics association with conferences attracting up to 60,000 artists and technical professionals including animators, mathematicians, astronomers, surgeons, and makers of feature films. 

West’s third book is Seeing What Others Cannot See -- The Hidden Advantages of Visual Thinkers and Differently Wired Brains. In this book, he investigates how different kinds of brains and different ways of thinking can help to make discoveries and solve problems in innovative and unexpected ways. West focuses on what he has learned over the years from a group of extraordinarily creative people -- strong visual thinkers and those with dyslexia, Asperger’s syndrome, and other different ways of thinking, learning and working. 

West has organized conferences and given presentations for organizations such as a meeting of some 50 Max Planck Institutes in Göttingen, Germany, the Italian Dyslexia Association in Rome, the Netherlands Design Institute in Amsterdam, Magdalen College within Oxford University and the Royal College of Art in London.

In recognition of the value of West’s research and writing, his books and papers have recently been deposited in a permanent archive in the National Library of Medicine, NIH. 

Contact: thomasgwest@gmail.com.