He is a member of the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology and the Center for Computation Biology and Bioinformatics. Tom received a B.S. in Ecology, Ethology, and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Before heading to graduate school, he worked as a botanist for the Illinois Natural History Survey, for The Nature Conservancy Colorado Field Office, and on a variety of field research related projects including studies of tropical fruit bats and bird behavioral ecology.