[1] Brooks began his higher education career at William Jewell College, studying physics and mathematics, achieving a B.A., summa cum laude, in 1982.

While there he studied abroad at the University of Cambridge, passing Part 1 of the tripos in Archaeology and Anthropology in 1980.

[1] Brooks joined the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) as a research meteorologist in 1991.

Elected as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in 2010 and a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) in 1996, Brooks has received the Department of Commerce Silver Medal in 2002, three NOAA Research Outstanding Paper Awards, and the NOAA Administrator's Award in 2007.

[2] He was a contributor to the Physical Science Basis portion of the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, an organization that was co-awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.