Thomas W. Brooks Jr., LS, is a Professional Surveyor with HGA, and he is based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He is a Professional Surveyor licensed in Alabama and eighteen other states with over thirty-five years of professional experience. From 1986 until 2008, Thomas ran his own surveying firm, Brooks & Brooks, Inc, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, specializing in Corps of Engineers contracts, cell towers, pipelines, and ALTA surveys. Since then, Thomas has held responsibility for pipeline surveys nationwide and has supervised up to forty-five survey crews, ensuring proper training and quality control. Thomas is a past-president of both the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS - 2001) and the Alabama Society of Professional Land Surveyors (ASPLS - 2013). He served as chair of the Council on Federal Procurement of Architectural and Engineering Services (COFPAES). Currently, Thomas is currently a member of the ALTA/NSPS Standards Committee, the NSPS PAC, and the Scouting Committee. Thomas taught the surveying merit badge at three Boy Scout national jamborees and rewrote an edition of the Survey Merit Badge Book. He has served as an expert witness on boundary disputes and condemnation cases. Thomas has presented various surveying topics, including rights-of-ways and easements, standards, safety, and ethics. In his spare time, Thomas and his wife, Jeanine, enjoy traveling, having visited all fifty states and over 370 national park sites.