He received his PhD in Physics from Lehigh University in 2000 focusing on aggregation and adsorption behavior of polyelectrolytes. He then moved to the department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. There he worked on colloidal systems and carbon nanotubes. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 2005, and since then, he has received several awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER award (2007), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2007), a Kavli Fellowship (2008), and a George Tallman Ladd Research Award (2009).