Prior to coming to the University of Arizona, Dr. Willis was Associate Professor for ASU Department of Health and Physical Education. Prior to his arrival at ASU, Dr. Willis carried out his doctoral research with the Membrane Bioenergetics Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and subsequently spent three years doing postdoctoral work on the effects of dietary iron deficiency on the thermodynamics of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco.