Director of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research (COSTAR) at the Colorado School of Mines. He chairs the leading international symposium on oil shale development and the Oil Shale Committee of the Energy Minerals Division (EMD) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). He was formerly Project Manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Branch Chief at the U. S. Department of Energy, and exploration and development geologist for ARCO Oil & Gas Company. He is affiliated with AAPG, EMD, and the Geological Society of America. Dr Boak is extensively published and has a Ph.D. and B. A. in Geology from Harvard University and an M.S. in Geology from the University of Washington.