He participated in the 2002 REU at LSU as an undergraduate and received his Ph.D. in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania under Dennis DeTurck and Herman Gluck. He was a visiting researcher at the Isaac Newton Institute and the recipient of the University of Georgia's 2014 Postdoctoral Research Award before coming to Colorado State. Dr. Shonkwiler is an expert in the study of random knots and more generally of random walks subject to topological constraints, which are used to model biologically significant ring and network polymers, and his research synthesizes differential and symplectic geometry with topology, probability, and computation. He also enjoys creating mathematical art.