He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in 1995 and worked at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center until joining the faculty in 2001. He has published a textbook and several book chapters along with teaching short courses 17 times in several countries. He also has a patent for the flutterometer and another patent pending for a class of morphing aircraft. His novel biologically-inspired designs of morphing aircraft have been featured on the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel. Furthermore, he was invited to demonstrate these technologies at a reception for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007 before the State of the Union address. His research interests include design and analysis of time-varying aeroservoelastic aircraft in stochastic enviroments and optimal planning for sensing missions.