As a neurobiologist, the main focus of his research is to understand how dynamics at different time scales, arising from ion channel and synaptic gating properties, neuromodulation, and long-term regulatory mechanisms give rise to stability and flexibility of neural activity patterns underlying behavior. Dirk Bucher was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cologne, Germany, and at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida before joining NJIT.