He is a professor in the physics department at the University of California at Berkeley, which recognized him as a "distinguished professor," and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where he has conducted most of his research. In 1978, he received the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation - which honors scientists under the age of 40 - and, in 1982, he received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation - those seeking to stimulate young "geniuses" dedicated to the sciences and the arts. He is the author of Physics for Future Presidents (Antoni Bosch, 2009), The Instant Physicist: An Illustrated Guide (2010) and Now: The Physics of Time (2016), among other works.