He worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, for seven years prior to joining the Marquette faculty in 1999. Much of his research has been centered on the application of reliability and uncertainty analysis to water resources modeling and design. He has been honored for his research with the Walter L. Huber Research Prize, ASCE. He received his B.S. in civil engineering from Arizona State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.