He received a M.S. degree in Plant Breeding from the Agricultural University, Crawcow, Poland in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Plant Genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1996. He was a Research Associate at the University of Minnesota from 1997-1998, a Postdoctoral Scientist at UC Berkeley from 1998-2002, and an Assistant Specialist at UC Berkeley from 2002-2004. In 2004, he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics at Cornell University.