Dr. Van Herd
Van Herd completed his Master of Divinity degree cum laude at Phillips Theological Seminary, now in Tulsa, OK, in 1991. He went on to complete a Master of Arts degree and the Ph. D. in the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. Rev. Herd is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and served a number of parishes as pastor as well as organist. Van has also served as a denominational official and as a chair of the regional Committee on Ministry. His family background was the Evangelical Synod of North America, now merged into the UCC, the church of Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr. Prior to coming to SSW, he was on the adjunct faculty of the University of Oklahoma where he taught religion and science. In addition to teaching for SSW, he is also a research affiliate at the Institute for Neurobiology at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research includes neurophysiology and bioinformatics. He has undertaken additional study at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, as well as Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. His theological interests are science, mathematics, medicine, and theology, as well as the 16th-century German theologian and mystic, Jacob Boehme. His hobby interests are railroads, cars, and swimming and diving.
