He holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Michigan State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a post-doctoral Research Associate with the GeoVISTA Center in the Department of Geography at Penn State, where he helped to found the North-East Visualization and Analytics Center. His research in information visualization and visual analytics focuses broadly on synthesis of highly interactive visual interfaces for exploring and analyzing heterogeneous multidimensional data sets.