He worked on Scala for two years as a post-doc at EPFL. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Tech, where he worked on static analysis of dynamic languages. In addition to Scala, he has worked on a wide variety of programming languages, ranging from the dynamic language Smalltalk to the scientific language X10 to the logic language that powers LogicBlox. He and his wife currently live in Atlanta with two cats, a chihuahua, and a turtle.