 He was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and received an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Princeton University in 1985, and a Ph.D. in computational quantum chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.Between 1989 and 1996, Blahous worked as a legislative aide to Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming; he was his Congressional Science Fellow in 1989-1990 and Legislative Director in 1994-1996 (sponsored by the American Physical Society).After Simpson's retirement, Blahous served from 1996 to 2000 as a Policy Director for Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.