He received his PhD in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University and Wisconsin-Madison. His research program aims to understand and predict how global environmental changes affect biodiversity and ecosystems at the regional and global scales, and their consequences for a range of vital ecosystem services, such as food and clean water. He has been working intensively in human-dominated landscapes, such as urban and agricultural setting. The ultimate goal of his research is to produce knowledge that is critical for developing solutions for real-world conservation, management and policy challenges.