Tina L. Brower-Thomas

Tina Louise Brower-Thomas is an American nanotechnology and quantum materials researcher and STEM education advocate. She is the Education Director at the Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, and Executive Director of its Howard University branch.

Early life and education Brower-Thomas's parents were William A. Brower, a jazz historian, and producer well known in the Washington, D.C., and New Orleans jazz community, She attended Montgomery County Public Schools. She was interested in chemistry from an early age; as a youth, she would attempt to concoct her own cleaning solutions, in some cases ruining her kitchen floor and producing holes in her coat. After her postdoctoral position, she was a consultant to DARPA and the Department of Homeland Security.

She returned to Howard University in 2007, Her research program includes molecular self-assembly, surface functionalization, chemical vapor deposition, and chemical intercalation of 2D materials. As of 2022, she also has a visiting faculty appointment at Harvard University.

Brower-Thomas is known for her work in STEM education. She emphasizes early STEM education and engagement at the high school and earlier levels, in order to retain interest in STEM careers especially by women and people of color. She has said that lack of access to resources at schools that serve underserved communities could cause a quantum version of the digital divide. She also emphasizes the interdisciplinary of quantum information as a field.