After receiving both his degrees (comparable to B.S. and M.S.) in chemistry in 2006 and 2008, he obtained his Ph.D. in manotechnology in 2012 at the University of Trieste in Italy. He was a post-doctoral scholar in the Chemistry Department at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at Stanford. He is the recipient of the ENI Award Debut in Research 2013 and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies Award as best European Ph.D. thesis in catalysis in 2013. His research interests are in heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis and in the technological exploitation of nanoparticles and nanocrystals.