He received his BA in Chemistry from Carleton College in 2004 and a PhD in Chemistry in 2010 from the University of California, Berkeley, where his thesis work characterized the electrical properties of individual semiconductor nanocrystals. From 2010-2014 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Materials Science and Applied Physics department at the California Institute of Technology. His research centers on the use of nanomaterials for solar energy, as well as related opportunities at the intersection of material science, chemistry and nanophotonics. His work has generated multiple patents relating to optical power conversion, and has been featured in Nature Magazine 'Research Highlights' and on the cover of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.