Alexander Gates is a distinguished service professor and former vice chancellor at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ. He has been at Rutgers University for 37 years and served as chair of the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences for 20 of those years. Gates is a field geologist who has conducted research on structural geology and tectonics from Maine to Alabama and in Colorado on a variety of topics. He is the author of 9 books, including the forthcoming Reclaiming Our Planet: How Environmental History Can Help Solve the Climate Crisis, and 81 professional papers and has edited 11 professional volumes. Gates has appeared on four television documentaries by PBS and the Discovery Channel among others and is commonly interviewed on television, radio, and newspaper features. He has developed several geology displays for large museums that are visited by hundreds of thousands of people. Gates also developed the Highlands Environmental Research Institute and served as director for eight years.