He earned his B.S. in Physics in 1993 from Stanford University, and Ph.D. in Physics in 1999 from the University of Washington, and was a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Ultracold Atoms at MIT. He received the Koffler Award for Teaching at the University of Arizona in 2009. Cronin leads a research team using a 3-nanograting atom interferometer to measure atomic polarizabilities and van der Waals forces.