He received his Ph.D. in Biology in 2001 from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied under Dr. John R. Pringle. He did his postdoctoral research with Dr. Thomas D. Pollard at Yale University, where he first counted protein molecules using fluorescence microscopy and quantitative immunoblotting. He also collaborated on a biophysical model of contractile-ring assembly in fission yeast partly based on the counted protein stoichiometries. His lab has been funded by an American Heart Association Beginning Grant-in-Aid, a March of Dimes Basil Oâ€™Connor Starter Scholar Research Award, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant, and a National Institutes of Health R01 grant. He has been a member of the American Society for Cell Biology since 2001 and a member of the editorial board of BioArchitecture since 2012.