He was on the faculties of Arizona State University (1992–1998) as an assistant professor, the University of Michigan (1999–2006) as the Robert W. Parry Professor of Chemistry, and the University of California, Los Angeles (2007–2012) as the Christopher S. Foote Professor of Chemistry as well as holding the Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Physical Sciences.
In 2012, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley where he is now the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry. He was the director of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2012 through 2013. He is the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute. He is also a co-director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute of the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the California Research Alliance by BASF, as well as the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet.