Aaron received his B.S. in Biology and Molecular Biology from the University of Kentucky in 1998. As an undergraduate, he received the departmental research honors award and won the prestigious HHMI undergraduate summer research award. As an undergraduate Aaron served as lab manager in the biochemistry lab group of Dr. Jeff Davidson (UK) where he conducted site-directed mutagenesis studies on the CAD enzyme complex. From 1998-2000 he worked as lab manager and staff scientist in the research group of Dr. Linda Dwoskin (UK) where he carried out dopamine release studies. In 2000 he joined Dr. Crooks' group as a Ph.D. student. He worked as T.A. for a year before winning the International Foundation for Ethical Research pre-doctoral Fellowship Award to support his dissertation research. He is currently serving as a full-time research associate while finishing his doctoral studies. His work focuses on the synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of novel guanylated nicotinic analogs for use as potential pharmacotherapeutics for numerous CNS diseases and disorders. Most recently, Aaron won the graduate school's Dissertation Enhancement Award for international research-related travel. In June '05 he spent time in England as a visiting scientist in the lab of Dr. Neil Millar, University College London, London, UK where he carried out functional studies on nicotinic receptors in transfected cell lines.