Valerie L. Thomas is an American scientist and inventor. She invented the illusion transmitter, for which she received a patent in 1980.[2] She was responsible for developing the digital media formats image processing systems used in the early years of the Landsat program. Valerie Thomas is recognized as the patent holder for a real time illusion transmitter that produced a real image of an illuminated object – that is as a holographic image - visible without needing special glasses (US Patent 4229761A)[4]. Another remarkable achievement that was adopted by NASA, is still used in surgery, and is critical to the production of television and video screens. Dr. Thomas is arguably credited as being the creator of 3D imagery!

Throughout her career, Thomas held high-level positions at NASA including heading the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) collaboration between NASA, NOAA, and USDA in 1974, serving as assistant program manager for Landsat/Nimbus (1975–1976), managing the NSSDC Computer Facility (1985), managing the Space Physics Analysis Network project (1986–1990), and serving as associate chief of the Space Science Data Operations Office. She authored many scientific papers and holds a patent for the illusion transmitter. 

For her achievements, Thomas has received numerous awards including the Goddard Space Flight Center Award of Merit and NASA's Equal Opportunity Medal. She continues to mentor countless students in the Mathematics Aerospace Research and Technology Inc program, and now serves on the board of Paragon Institute of Innovation.