The evolution of a creationist

I have a story to tell and it's an interesting one (I think, I am going to change the names and places to protect the individual). Several years ago a young man began debating Baumgardner's hyperplate tectonic model on one of the various creation/evolution debate boards. The kid was bright, well-read and reasonably good at debating. He was, at the time, a junior and then senior in high school. It was obvious that this kid was smart and he was very interested in geology and geophysics. He read books, I gave him copies of my old books and he really thought through the problems he was debating.
He applied to UF and I wrote him a strong letter of support, but for whatever reason, he was not admitted. He is now at a different university and studying geology. I have been in contact with him and following his progress. The young man desires to get a Ph.D. and is working in the labs at his university doing interesting stuff. Here is his entry from Facebook (with names removed of course):

I am a student member of: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, and Philosophy of Science Association.

I work for the XXX geology department doing geochemical research. The current project has to do with the chemical geodynamics of subduction zones and what information we can derive from trace B, Be, and Li concentration analyses.

If anyone has an ion microprobe I can get my hands on, lets hang out.

One goal of mine is to get published in a respected journal while still an undergraduate. I am working on projects in geochemistry and geodynamics and have a lengthy list of of geology related projects I would like to pursue at some point. I am also working on some very interesting projects in philosophy. My work here will probably culminate in a book which I tentatively call "love transcending".

He is doing well in school and from what I can tell has seen through the guise of young earth creationism. I'm hoping he'll consider UF for graduate work. He is no Marcus Ross.

Cheers

Joe Meert