Thomas E. Ross, Ph.D. b. 1942 is a retired professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.[1] Educated at Marshall University (BA in 1968 and MS in 1969) he gained his Ph.D. from University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1977.[1] He is an internationally recognized authority on Carolina bays, having written the definitive bibliography of bays (Carolina Bays: An Annotated Bibliography. Carolinas Press. ISBN 1-891026-09-7) In addition to his widely praised research on the bays, Ross has written books on American Indians, including American Indians: A Cultural Geography and American Indians in North Carolina: Geographic Interpretations. He is a native of West Virginia.