Dr. Thomas A. Harry who currently serves as the Head of Department (2017 to date), is from Nsit Atai LGA, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. He started his primary education in Calabar Preparatory Nursery School, Calabar in 1977 and was admitted into Federal Government College, Ikot Ekpene-AKS in 1983. In 1984, he went into the Department of Geology, University of Calabar for a B.Sc program and later graduated with a Second Class Upper Degree (21 ). In the year 2003 and 2015, he obtained his Masters (M.Sc) and PhD degrees in Petroleum Geology and Micropaleontology respectively, from the same Department and University. 

 He served his country during his NYSC program as a Lecturer in the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State (1997) before proceeding for his Masters program. He was employed by Stonecraft FZE in 2003 as a Geologist, and grew to the Position of a Senior Geologist/Head,Quality Assurance in 2008. 

 Thereafter, he was employed by the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), an international Interventionist based in the U.S.A. as Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, where he served until he joined the services of Akwa Ibom State University in the year 2010. As a Consultant, he has worked as National and State consultant for the United Nations (UN) for 6 years driving many intervention projects in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Energy sector across sub-Saharan Africa.

 He  is also an alumnus of Juran six sigma quality institute and Lagos Business School (Pan-African University)-senior management course. Dr. Harry has published 35 academic papers (www.researchgate.com/Thomas Akpan Harry) in local and major international Journals across many subjects including Oil and Gas (Petroleum) Technology, Sequence stratigraphy, Biostratigraphy, Environmental Geochemistry and Petroleum Basin Evaluation. He also co-authored a bestselling Geology book called ‘A Guide to earth History’. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Explorationists (AAPG), Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) and Currently, The Chapter Coordinator of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Exploratonists (NAPE)- Uyo-Calabar Chapter. 

Dr. Thomas A. Harry is a multi-dimensional scholar; he has spoken in many international and local conferences across several disciplines. He is also a Master Trainer in the oil and Gas sector. His clients include NNPC R&D, PPRA, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Port Harcourt Refinery, PENGASSAN, EVERLINK, Ministry of Petroleum Resources etc 

 He is also an Associate Editor of NAPE Global Bulletin. 
 Other certification and competencies include;