He obtained his Ph.D. in 2002 from Stanford University, working at SLAC and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was then a Robert H. Dicke Fellow in fundamental physics at Princeton and held several extended visiting appointments at Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining the Faculty at Princeton. His research has focused on quantum Hall-like topological phases, exotic correlated superconductors, quantum phase transitions, and topological quantum computing physics. In recent years, he, along with his team, has experimentally discovered topological-order in bulk solids (3D topological insulators) including the single-Dirac-cone series using spin-resolved and phase-sensitive spectroscopic measurements.