He received his PhD from Temple University in 1984 and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship in C.-J. Lai's laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, studying influenza and dengue viruses. Later, he worked as a research associate in the lab of Harry B. Greenberg at Stanford University, studying Group A and B rotaviruses. From Stanford he moved to his current positions at Stony Brook and the VA Medical Center at Northport.