Christian J. Gross was elected the Chapter Chair for the newly named Goettingen-Hannover Chapter in 2019. He was born in Germany and grew up in Sandusky, Ohio. After high school Chris went on to pursue his undergraduate education at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he received his BS degree in geology. Here, Chris also began to acquire his political, historical and environmental awareness. After his studies he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he got his first taste of environmental activism, by working for the League of Conservation Voters. Moving south to Ashland, Oregon he first worked in an organic food store, and then landed a position as a geologist on the Rogue River National Forest conducting applied geohydrological research in the Big Butte Springs Watershed. After project completion, Chris moved back to Portland (where he also votes) to work for the Mt. Hood National Forest on various environmental and engineering geology projects.

In 1992, Chris moved to Goettingen, Germany, to continue his geological studies at the Georg-August University of Goettingen. This led him to do research in Austria (receiving a German Diplom degree) and Namibia, studying very ancient rocks for a comprehensive PhD dissertation. In 2007, along with his research Chris also started a geoscience editing and translation service.

“Being a geologist studying ancient rocks has given me a sense of deep geological time. Climate change and the drastic impact that humans have on the Earth in all its facets is what drives part of my political activity. Boiled down to all the ages of life on Earth, one can truly say that the Earth does not need humanity, but humanity needs the Earth. Let’s all go out and vote and create a Blue Wave to generate sweeping changes to our society for all future generations.”

Chris has been a member of Democrats Abroad since 2000 but became more actively involved when Goettingen hosted the Annual General Meeting in 2005.