He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona and then worked as an astronomer in Hawaii, Europe, and Chile. He is a specialist in a technique called "adaptive optics." Adaptive optics uses cutting-edge technology to allow large ground-based telescopes to make images sharper than those possible from smaller space based telescopes. He has helped develop and has utilized many of the existing adaptive optics systems available today on 6.5-8 meter class telescopes. He uses the unsurpassed clarity of adaptive optics to make discoveries in many areas of observational astrophysics. Some of his research interests include: direct imaging of planets around other stars; discovering brown dwarf binaries and low mass stars; imaging disks around low and high mass stars; finding moons around asteroids.