Professor Colin Barker, for whom this endowment is named, was an esteemed faculty member at The University of Tulsa for 35 years. He served as the chair of the Department of Geosciences from 1987 until 2002 and held the McMan Chair of Geosciences at TU from 1998 until 2004.

Barker graduated from Oxford University in England with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry and a Doctor of Philosophy in Geology. He is internationally known as a pioneering scholar in organic geochemistry and petroleum systems. During his 35 years at TU, he chaired numerous graduate review committees, graduating 15 doctoral and 35 master’s degree candidates and serving on the committees of many additional graduates.

Upon Professor Barker’s retirement in 2004, two of his former students, David Wavrek (PhD ’92) and Clive Ferebee (MS ’91), initiated the establishment of this endowment and encouraged others to join them in celebrating this distinguished academician. Subsequently, a great number of Professor Barker’s former students and many geoscience alumni made generous gifts in his honor and assisted in fully funding the Colin Barker Geosciences Graduate Student Endowment.