He earned his Ph.D. at American University in Washington, D.C. and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Moffitt Cancer Center. His research has involved human laboratory, clinical, and epidemiological research examining cognition, drug perception, and population-level differences. His current program of research focuses on reducing the harm related to tobacco use by better understanding tobacco product perception and how product perception relates to decision-making processes about tobacco products including electronic nicotine delivery systems.