Gerry VanKooten joined the faculty first in the fall of 2002 and on a permanent basis in 2004. He comes from Alaska where he worked for 20 + years as a petroleum geologist and oil and gas consultant. At Calvin, Gerry has held the Spoelhof chair in 2002/3 and 2004/5. Gerry attended Calvin for two years and completed his B.S. in geology at the University of Washington. He attended graduate school at Arizona State University, receiving his Masters in geology. Dr. Van Kooten received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1980. He also studied recent volcanic rocks in Germany on a Fullbright Scholarship. He has worked on the recovery of Prince William Sound in Alaska from a major oil spill and has documented the role of natural oil seeps on the marine environment. Dr. Van Kooten's current research interests include using geochemistry to track the origin and movement of hydrocarbons in the natural environment. A few more of Dr. Van Kooten's research interests deal with the development of secondary porosity in North Slope subsurface sediments in the Brooks Range, Alaska, and the origin of large natural gas deposits found in the Cook Inlet of Alaska. He is currently working with a student on identifying and describing a suite of Alaskan ammonites of Cretaceous age from the Talkeetna Mountains in Alaska. He is involved with several students in developing educational projects jointly with local high schools to study and monitor local streams. Dr. Van Kooten teaches Mineralogy, Petrology, Geochemistry, and Structural Geology as well as Introductory Geology courses. He also teaches off-campus geology interim courses in Hawaii (in January) and Montana (in May).