Thurstone graduated from Cornell U with a BS in electrical engineering in 1912. This led to employment with Thomas Edison. Thurstone was interested in the way people learn, and this led to a PhD in psychology from U Chicago in 1917. He then joined the faculty at Carnegie Institute of Technology, moving in 1924 to a chair at U Chicago. In 1931 he introduced the method of factor analysis. He was President of the American Psychological Association in 1933 and, in 1935, the first President of the Psychometric Society.

http://www.intelltheory.com/lthurstone.shtml Fuller biography and photograph.