Question: I'm currently enrolled as a graduate student pursuing my masters. I'm wanting to eventually pursue a PhD, but in order to do that, I believe I need to do a thesis for my graduate degree, and for that I need a thesis adviser. What would be the best way of going about this?

There is a long list of professors, and it would take a long time to go through all of them to see what they are currently researching. I thought someone might have some experience with this and be able to offer some thoughts.

Answer: 
The list of professors *can't* be that long to just see their general research interests. This is just something you'll have to do. I've looked through all the profs at various schools with large departments and it probably took a max of 30 minutes.

**But** just reading about them isn't enough. If you can get your list down to 2-4 potential advisors then you can (A) ask for a meeting with each or (B) try to take a course with some of them.

If you have a general idea of what you want to study, it should be relatively easy to find a few that you are interested in. The harder part is convincing them to take you on :)
Do as Austin Henley's answer says, but make sure to explain you want to go on to a PhD (and be prepared to be asked *why* you want to pursue a PhD, and a master's for that matter!). There might very well be paths to a PhD without a master's, or after a master's without thesis. Which ones do exist (or even might be created just for you, as an exceptionally bright student) is very much a local matter, which we know nothing about.