Downey received in 1989 his Bachelor of Science and in 1990 his Master of Arts, both in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997.
He started his career as Research Fellow in the San Diego Supercomputer Center in 1995. In 1997 he became Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Colby College, and in 2000 at Wellesley College. He was Research Fellow at the Boston University in 2002 and Professor of Computer Science at the Franklin West. Olin College of Engineering since 2003.
In 2009-2010 he was also Visiting Scientist at Google Incorporated.
