Tom Elliott, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Digital Programs
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
New York University
homepages.nyu.edu/~te20/
tom.elliott@nyu.edu
Last update: 20 February 2008
See also: Tom’s full CV with publications and skills
Tom Elliott is a 1985 graduate of Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A. In the fall of that year, he matriculated at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, supported by a 4-year scholarship from the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. He graduated, cum laude, in 1989 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Science and a second major in Classical Studies, having studied Software Engineering, Ancient Greek and Classical Civilization.
Tom then served as a Communications and Computer Systems Officer in the United States Air Force, stationed at Grissom Air Force Base, Indiana. In successive posts as Chief of Communications Maintenance, Chief of Communications Operations, and Base Closure Planning Officer, Tom supervised over 60 technicians and operators, and administered annual operations budgets (exclusive of payroll) ranging from $3 - $5 million. His duties were essential to the flight operations of the 305th Air Refueling Wing of the Strategic Air Command. His subordinates operated and maintained the Wing’s ground radios, air traffic control and landing systems, RADAR, weather monitoring equipment, telecommunications network, secure data communications system and data processing facility. Upon separating from the Air Force in late 1992, Tom was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain in the Inactive Reserve.
Tom next worked as a software developer and project manager for AEgis Research Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama (now AEgis Technologies Group). Between 1992 and 1995, Tom directed the design, development and operation of a human/hardware-in-the-loop simulator for the U.S. Army’s Avenger Weapons system. In addition to supervisory and programming tasks, Tom was responsible for the digital manipulation of terrain elevation data and aerial imagery to produce three-dimensional virtual reality “worlds” for simulations. While working for AEgis, Tom was also taking post-baccalaureate coursework at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in Roman History and Latin in preparation for graduate training in ancient history.
In fall 1995, Tom entered the Ancient History graduate program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His first two years of graduate education, culminating in the Master’s degree, were supported by a prestigious Morehead Fellowship. His academic research focused on the intersection of Roman documentary, administrative and geographic studies, with special emphasis on aspects of the late Roman census in the eastern empire and on the administrative context and implications of boundary disputes within the early Roman empire. His master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation were completed under the direction of Prof. Richard Talbert.
In addition to regular service as a teaching assistant, he held a variety of positions that employed and enhanced his teaching, technical and historical skills, including: Project Manager of the Interactive Ancient Mediterranean, System Designer for the UNC Digital Library Project, Web Information Coordinator for the American Society for Greek and Latin Epigraphy, and Organizer of the EpiDoc Collaborative for development of standards for the digital encoding of Greek and Latin epigraphical texts.
Beginning in 1999, Tom worked as a research assistant for the Classical Atlas Project, and played a key role in the production and preparation of the alphabetical gazetteer and Map-by-Map Directory that accompanies the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (Princeton, 2000). In August 2000, he was appointed by the Dean of the UNC College of Arts and Sciences to serve as Founding Director of the Ancient World Mapping Center. As Director, he established and developed the Center’s financial endowment, facilities, teaching program and research agenda, ultimately writing a proposal to the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities that secured nearly $390,000 for the development of the Pleiades Project: an on-line workspace for ancient geography.
In February 2006, Tom stepped down from his position as the Center’s director to assume full-time leadership of the Pleiades Project. In this position, he directed all aspects of its design, development and operation. Pleiades will provide on-line access to all information about Greek and Roman geography assembled by the Classical Atlas Project (www.unc.edu/depts/cl_atlas), with the addition of other resources over time. Pleiades will also enable large-scale collaboration in order to maintain and diversify this dataset.
In February 2008, Tom took up his current position as Associate Director for Digital Programs in the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. In this capacity, he works closely with the Institute's Director, Head Librarian, faculty and staff to envision, plan and realize digital projects and services across the full range of the Institute's research, teaching and outreach missions. Collaboration with other institutions, projects and individuals at the forefront of scholarly computing in ancient studies is an essential aspect of this work, with the goal of broad and lasting service to the field and the public.