He received his B.S. degree from the University of Colorado, M.S. degree from the University of Texas, and Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, all in Chemical Engineering. After graduate school, he was a Visiting Scientist in the Strategic Process Technology Group (1992-1993) at DuPont. He joined Louisiana State University as an Assistant Professor in 1994. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. He was named the James McLaurin Shivers Professor the same year.