He then moved to California to work at the General Motors Defense Laboratory, and completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, working in the then-new area of laser physics.
Once there, he collaborated with materials scientist Alastair M. Glass to study properties of electro-optic crystals.
Shortly after, he came up with the idea of using photoconducting antennae as both a source and detector of radiation, developing what came to be known as Auston switches.
In 2003, he moved back to Santa Barbara, California, to serve as the President of the Kavli Foundation.
[2][3] Auston was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1989 for pioneering development in the field of picosecond and femtosecond optoelectronics.