He received his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ill, USA, in 2000, and joined the chemistry faculty at California State Polytechnic University immediately thereafter. He moved to his current position in Charlotte in 2006. His research is focused on elucidating the physical principles that underlie protein family evolution. To that end, his laboratory develops and applies methods based on both computational biology and bioinformatics. Synergistic combination of the two approaches is providing the theoretical background to understand why divergent, albeit evolutionarily related, proteins conserve function, and how new functions emerge. Past efforts have focused on the importance of protein electrostatics whereas current emphasis is on the give-and-take between protein stability and flexibility.