Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada, and is a Professor in the Centre for Environment and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo.

In 1980 he received his BA in Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa. After completing graduate work in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomas Homer-Dixon moved to the University of Toronto and led several international research projects examining the links between environmental stress and violence in developing countries. He held the George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto before coming to the University of Waterloo.

His current research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century and on how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change. He is particularly interested in the causes and consequences of economic instability and in the relationship between climate change, world energy consumption, and violent conflict. His work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on political science, economics, environmental studies, geography, cognitive science, social psychology, and complex systems theory. Thomas Homer-Dixon is one of the world’s leading experts on the intricate links between nature, technology, and society. His writings have appeared in leading scholarly journals, popular magazines, and newspapers. His books include The Ingenuity Gap, which won the 2001 Governor General's Non-fiction Award. His most recent book, The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, was an immediate #1 best seller in Canada, a Globe and Mail top 100 pick, and the winner of the 2006 National Business Book Award and was listed as one of the Financial Times "best books" of 2007 in politics and religion.