He went to Michigan State University for undergraduate study, earning both a B.S. in Biosystems Engineering, focusing on food process engineering, and a B.A. in Philosophy, focusing on ethics. He then studied at Cornell, receiving an M.S. and Ph.D. in food microbiology, working on risk analysis in microbial food safety. This included the use of whole genome sequence analysis to identify persistent Listeria in food associated environments. He has also worked on an international team to develop appropriate technology to manage mycotoxins in Kenyan maize. He has published 17 papers on Listeria and Salmonella food safety microbiology, including a review of Listeria monocytogenes persistence that was the most downloaded publication of 2014 for the Journal of Food Protection.