He earned bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Idaho, followed by a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. After working in the University of Minnesota Pharmaceutics program as an NIH Kirschstein/NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, he joined the University of Iowa in 2008. His research is in the areas of medical implant infection control and controlled drug delivery.