He holds a B.S. in mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy (1972, Beat Army) and M.S. from the Naval PostGraduate School (1973), and a Ph.D. in information technology from George Mason University (2003). He is also a retired Navy Captain (30 years of service in submarines and the Naval Reserve) and a retired civil servant (25 years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy). He joined the Center in 2008 after a post-doctoral fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory sponsored by the National Academy of Science.