John Gilbert Romo  

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Dissertation Title: Spectral Synthesis in Banach Modules.
Advisor: James Burnham

When he took algebra in middle school, Romo initially had a hard time. Fortunately, his teacher encouraged him and with persistence, he broke the mental obstacles that could pressure him. He enjoyed math even more after that and became determined not only to major in math, but also earn a Ph.D. Imagining himself with a doctorate was an affirming tool he used to remain focused.

He found that major obstacles included dealing with the lower expectations that one of his high school counselors expressed to him. "You've done well here, but college will be different." It wasn't the words but the non-verbal expression of what the counselor had said that almost demoralized Romo. He had to seek the opinions of other teachers to help him overcome the doubts that began to hound him. He also took this as a challenge, earned scholarships, and opened doors for himself and others in attending Trinity University.

In selecting a graduate school, Romo was concerned about being accepted just for being a minority student. He attended graduate school by working as a teaching assistant and completed his master's in 1973. The world of mathematics truly opened up with the variety of coursework. The integration of algebraic structures, topology, functional analysis, and historical threads led him to focus in harmonic analysis. He received his Ph.D. in 1976.

Anxious to move on, he elected to work at a community college for nine months, then joined the faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1977. During his time there, Romo found that he was being lured into computer science due to the needs of the department. He realized he would better appreciate the field and its practical perspectives if he left academia.

Romo joined federal service in 1980 as a mathematician supporting an Air Force engineering division responsible for radar and navigation problem analyses that included simulation and Kalman filtering design. Following his initial position with the Air Force, he worked on computer applications for the intelligence community such as data acquisition, fusion, and presentation. His work involved numerical analysis, modeling and simulation, artificial intelligence, software engineering, computer-based training, and technology transfer methods. More recently, he served as a technical director providing operations research support -- designing, conducting, and directing studies to address operational problems related to human system technology issues.

Key elements in all his work have been the critical thinking skills and stamina he gained in working in mathematics. Romo has worked with personnel having broad ranges of purpose, background and responsibility -- planners, engineers, computer scientists, laboratory scientists, psychologists, physicians, Research Development and Acquisition managers, executives and operations personnel. He also served as consultant to the Executive Board of the American Chemical Society, was invited to conduct technology sessions at the Federal Executive Institute, and was selected as Air Force representative to national working groups on Defense Modeling and Simulation, and Artificial Intelligence initiatives. He has enjoyed the diverse applications, technology, and highly talented people he has worked with, along with the continuing opportunity to learn. He recently left federal service to establish an independent consulting practice, Transformation Concepts.

[Dr. Romo]