He received his B.A. in chemistry from Connecticut College (New London, USA) in 1999, where he carried out undergraduate research in bioorganic chemistry with Prof. Bruce Branchini. He then entered the University of Pennsylvania, USA, where he studied natural products total synthesis with Prof. Amos B. Smith, III. Upon obtaining his Ph.D. in 2005 he joined the lab of Prof. Chi-Huey Wong at the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, California, USA, to study carbohydrate chemistry as a postdoctoral researcher. His current research interests focus on developing new stereoselective glycosylation reactions and application of these technologies to the synthesis carbohydrate-based vaccines and oligosaccharide antibiotics.