John VandenBrooks is a Professor in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts and the Associate Dean of Immersive Learning in EdPlus at Arizona State University. He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Michigan, his doctorate in geology and geophysics at Yale University, and was a postdoctoral fellow in physiology at Arizona State University.
Previously, VandenBrooks was an Associate Professor of Physiology at Midwestern University (2014-2022). While there, he served as the Associate Director of Veterinary Physiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. In this role, he was a founding faculty member of the College of Veterinary Medicine and led the development, alignment and mapping of the basic science curriculum culminating in the successful accreditation of the college. In recognition of his outstanding achievement as an educator in the field of veterinary medicine, he was awarded the American Association of Veterinary Colleges Distinguished Veterinary Teacher Award. At Midwestern, VandenBrooks also served as the chair of the IACUC overseeing all animal use for research and teaching on campus and he was the core facility director managing centralized research facilities on campus and multi-million dollar capital equipment budgets.
He is best known for his paleophysiological research on how variation in atmospheric oxygen levels affected the physiology and evolution of animals over geologic time including the evolution of insect gigantism, but he has also worked on why animals die when they overheat, the epidemiology of tick borne diseases, cyborg beetles, storage systems for alternative fuels and more. His research has been covered by a variety of media programs including on the National Geographic Channel, the History Channel, the BBC, and the Science Channel.
VandenBrooks accepted a position as the Associate Dean of Immersive Learning in EdPlus at Arizona State University in 2022. In this current role, he co-leads the Dreamscape Learn and Neo Bio initiatives. Dreamscape Learn is a partnership between ASU and Dreamscape Immersive that combines Hollywood storytelling and cutting-edge technology to enable students to conduct collaborative research in a virtual world. Neo Bio is a fully aligned adaptive biology curriculum that combines innovative skills-based pedagogy with narrative-driven Dreamscape Learn VR experiences to increase student outcomes.