He briefly worked at the University of Washington before a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council fellowship brought him to Sherbrooke's department of Biology in 1985.
[2][3] For a number of years Thomas had been traveling to Corsica to study blue tits; he died suddenly there from a stroke shortly after his arrival in May 2009.
[citation needed] The pair were in the habit of inviting colleagues and students to their home for friendly dinners after events such as seminars and dissertation defences.
He cowrote with his wife an elementary school science manual that earned a Roy C. Hill Award from the Canadian Teachers' Federation.
[2] After his death, a scholarship fund in his name was created at the Université de Sherbrooke,[3] and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology acknowledged his influence by dedicating a symposium to him at its January 2011 annual meeting.