From Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), he recieved Ph.D., Program in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, Dissertation Title: "Interactions among defensive morphology, startle performance, and Mauthner cell size in the brook stickleback (Culaea inconstans)", 1996. In 1990 Hiram College (Hiram, OH), B.A. in Biology. He Taught Courses like Animal Behavior, Tropical Marine Biology, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy,Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy Lab, Sp. Topics: Neural Mechanisms of Behavior,Molecular and Cellular Biology,Animal Form and Function.

His research interests are in the field of behavioral ecology, more specifically predator-prey dynamics and sexual selection. Work in thier lab over the last several years has focused on the round goby, an invasive species of fish from Eurasia. Thier work involves quantifying predation by round goby on dreissenid mussels (zebra and quagga mussels), determining the size of dreissenids preferred by goby, and exploring the factors influencing size-selectivity by goby. They are also working with the pharyngeal apparatus of round goby, which functions like another set of jaws in crushing mollusk prey. In addition to that work, They have also described and characterized vocalizations made by male round goby and they hope to elucidate the information content of those sounds. More recently, They have begun investigating reproductive investment in the spiny water flea, an invasive species of zooplankton from Northern Europe and Asia, and how variation in offspring number relates to female size and age. In the summer of 2012, They began investigating ontogenetic changes in food habits and pharyngeal apparatus of bluegills, pumpkinseeds and their hybrids.