The Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences Council on 2 February 2022 voted to induct QUT’s Dr T.J. Thomson into its membership ranks. Academy membership recognises ‘significant contributions to the academy, the professions and/or society as a whole’.
Dr Thomson is currently a senior lecturer in the School of Communication, a chief investigator in the Digital Media Research Centre, an associate investigator in the Centre for Future Enterprise, and an affiliate investigator in the Design Lab.
Dr Thomson conducts research into the interpersonal dynamics between journalists and those they cover and how these influence news depictions, and has contributed at the national and international levels to the interdisciplinary visual communication field.
His peers have said his research offers ‘an exceptionally rare take on human interaction and its consequence in the area, which seems crowded with research into its creative, discursive and technical aspects’ and have called him a leading researcher in the field of journalistic innovation. Dr Thomson’s research also informs industry practices and has been featured in professional venues such as the American Press Institute, Poynter, and the National Press Photographers Association.
The Academy is Queensland’s peak body for scholars in arts and sciences and aspires to be the state’s intellectual heartbeat. It exists to promote excellence in the arts and sciences, to stimulate activity in those areas that lie on the intersection between disciplines, and to provide independent scholarship and advice for social and public policy.