Dr. Brian C. Black is Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona, where he also served for over a decade as Head of Arts and Humanities. Recognized as a global expert on energy and petroleum history, he is the author of more than a dozen books, which include: Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom; Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History; and To Have and Have Not: Energy in World History. His writing on energy has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, USA TODAY, the Conversation, and the New York Times. He divides his time between central Pennsylvania and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.