Professor Brooks was born in Detroit Michigan and took his early education in chemistry, physics and mathematics in rural Michigan elementary, middle and high schools. He received a Bachelor of Sciences degree from Alma College in these disciplines in 1978. While at Alma, he played football in his freshman year and midfielder on the soccer team for three years. Remaining in the midwest, Dr Brooks pursued graduate studies at Purdue University under the direction of Professor Stephen A. Adelman. His graduate work focused on the development of non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theories for reactions on surfaces, in solids and in liquids using molecular timescale generalized Langevin (MTGLE) theory. In 1982 he received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Purdue University. In 2010 he was honored as Purdue University Chemistry Alumni of the year. Postgraduate work at Harvard University with Professor Martin Karplus between the years of 1982 and 1985 focused on theoretical and computational biophysics. Dr Brooks was the recipient of an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship between 1983 and 1985. In 1985, Professor Brooks joined the Chemistry Faculty of Carnegie Mellon University. He rose through the academic ranks at CMU, being promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 1992. He received an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 1992 and during this period, 1992-1993, spent a sabbatical year working at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Professor Brooks moved his research group to The Scripps Research Institute in 1994. Very recently, Professor Brooks became more in touch with his roots by moving to the University of Michigan, where he holds the positions of Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biophysics. He and his group moved to U of M in January, 2008.