Dr. Thomas L. Harman is the chair of the Engineering College at the University of Houston Clear Lake (UHCL). Dr. Harman began his full-time career at UHCL in 1979. Before that he was a staff engineer in the Controls System Department of Lockheed Engineering. His Ph.D. was granted by Rice University in Electrical Engineering. He is also the Director of the Center for Robotics Software recently formed at UHCL.

His research interests are control systems and applications of robotics and microprocessors. Several of his research papers with colleagues involved robot and laser applications to medicine.

His laboratory at UHCL has a Baxter two-armed robot and several mobile TurtleBots, flying drones, and other robots. UHCL students have participated in several robotic contests including the NASA Swarmathon held at KSC. He has been a judge and a safety advisor in the FIRST robotic contests in Houston.