He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is also graduate of McGill University (BA) and the College of Europe (MA). He has previously taught in the United States, the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden. His research concentrates on political competition in Europe with the aim of uncovering the ideological conflict lines in different countries. He is also one of the principal researchers of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey on party positioning -- the most comprehensive survey assessing ideological placements of political parties in Europe.