His areas of expertise are Ecosystem Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Hydrologic Sciences. He completed a B.A. in Biology (concentration in Ecology and Systematics) at Cornell University (1997), and he completed his PhD in Biology (concentration in Biogeochemistry) at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2003). He completed his postdoctoral research at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (2003-2005). Before he joined University of Maryland, College Park, he was an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science from 2005-2010.