He supervised numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and served as Science Director of the California Institute for Physics and Astronomy.

[citation needed] His scientific interests were broad, ranging from a seismic survey of Afghanistan to guest lectures and media interviews on the Big Bang in America.

Most of his articles appeared in the standard journals for astronomy and theoretical physics, but he also wrote pieces for New Scientist and other magazines of popular science.

In later years, he characterized his research as concentrating on two subjects: (1) The intensity of background light between galaxies depends on their luminosity and age, versus the redshift effect and the expansion of the universe.

This approach also resolves the notorious problem of why the night sky is so dark, or Olbers' paradox.