He uses an applied microscopy and microanalysis-based approach to study the chemical and physical evolution of the early solar system and ancient stars.  Using ultrahigh-resolution ion- and electron-microscopy to determine the composition and structure of planetary materials at scales ranging from millimeters to the atomic.

Currently, he is focused on the origin of refractory inclusions that formed the first solar-system solids, sulfides that formed in early solar nebula, and circumstellar grains that formed around ancient stars.