Dr. Longland over-arching research goal is to understand the origin of the elements and how stars burn their fuel. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Surrey, England and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Longland then did postdoctoral research at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, and returned to the Triangle for postdocs at UNC and NC State before joining the faculty at NC State in 2014. Dr. Longland used to be sponsored as a mountainboarder, and competed worldwide (photographic evidence).