He received a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. After this he joined the staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, prior to attending Caltech for graduate school, where he received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science. Before joining Penn, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. His research focuses on the mechanics and fabrication of novel material architectures, including hierarchical, heterogeneous, fibrous, and soft systems.