Dr. Cooke was a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut from 1994 to 2020. At the University of Connecticut, he directed the Urban Studies program, the Center for Population Research, and Connecticut’s US Census Data Center. Before arriving at UConn in 1994, he spent two years at the Polis Center in Indianapolis as an applied demographer. At Polis, he played a vital role in developing SAVI, now the nation’s largest and most comprehensive community information system. He is a Fulbright Scholar and the recipient of the Research Excellence Award in Population Geography by the American Association of Geographers. Thomas completed his Ph.D. in Geography at Indiana University in 1993 with a minor in Economics.