He obtained his Bachelor in 1983 from Northwestern University, his Doctor of Philosophy in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990, and had positions at Bell Communications Research and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, before taking his faculty position at the University of Florida.
In August 2011, he took a leave of absence from the University of Florida to be the Executive Director of LIGO, stationed at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. An expert in ultrafast optics and laser spectroscopy, he now specialises in laser-based interferometric gravitational wave detection.
This includes the development of new interferometer topologies for next generation gravitational wave detectors, investigations of thermal loading in passive and active optical elements, development of high power optical components, and the design, construction and operation of the LIGO interferometers.
As Director of the LIGO Laboratory, one his main efforts has been planning the proposed extension of the LIGO network of detectors to include one in India. In February 2016, he, as executive director of LIGO, announced that the first direct gravitational wave observation had occurred in September 14, 2015 by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration using the LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Los Los Angeles
