Thomas Missimer is an Eminent Scholar in Hydrology and Director of the Emergent Technologies Institute  at the U. A. Whitaker College of engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University. Between 2011 and 2014 (June), he was a visiting professor of environmental science and engineering (specialty in hydrogeology) at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. He has a BA in geology from Franklin & Marshall College, an MS in geology from Florida State University, and a PhD in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Miami. He has 46 years of experience as a hydrogeologist and has completed projects in groundwater development, water resources management, and the design and construction of various water projects. He has worked on a large number of artificial aquifer recharge projects used for storage and treatment of impaired waters (domestic wastewater and stormwater) and for seasonal and strategic storage of potable water (aquifer storage and recovery projects). He is the author of 11 books and more the 400 technical papers of which 113 are published in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently an Executive Editor of the journal Groundwater.

Dr. Missimer has conducted hydrogeological and geological research in Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Florida, and other locations for the past 45 years and is currently investigating the sedimentology of Late Miocene siliciclastic deposits, Holocene barrier island sedimentation, effects of historic sea level rise on coastal depositional environments, post-Miocene stratigraphy, and the evolution of hydraulic conductivity changes with dissolution of the carbonate fraction in mixed siliciclastic/carbonate sediments. He is continuing his work on the coastal geology of the Red Sea of Saudi Arabia and the coast of Uruguay in South America. He is conducting research with a graduate student on the biofouling issues at the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant and is working on water quality modeling of 5 different brackish-water desalination plants in southwest Florida. He teaches graduate-level groundwater hydrology and solute transport and research methods.