He grew up in
Crete, Nebraska from 1948 to 1957 and
Richardson, Texas from 1957 to 1964. He graduated with a BA in physics from
Michigan State University in 1968, with an MA in physics from
Harvard University in 1971 and a PhD from Harvard in 1974. He worked as junior faculty at Harvard University from 1969 to 1980, at
AT&T Bell Labs in
Holmdel, New Jersey from 1980 to 1987, and at Boston University from 1987 to 2014. He married the sociologist
Theda Barron in 1967; they have a son, Michael, born in 1988. ==References==