He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Physics from Kansas State University in 1979; and a M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusettes Institute of Technology, in 1981 and 1992 respectively. From 1980 to 1986 he was a Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories. His research interests currently include quantum optics, nonlinear dynamics, communication and control system performance assessment and refinement, solar energy, and optical sensors.