[2] He won a placement in the Columbia University Science Honors Program as a high school student and received his B.A.
from Columbia University, where started in the sciences but switched to literature.
[2] He won a Kellett Fellowship to study at the University of Cambridge, before receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia.
[2] His graduate research led to the publication of Machiavelli and Mystery of State (1988).
He is the inaugural Lloyd Davis Distinguished Visiting Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Queensland and held the inaugural Ann Fetter Friedlander Professorship at MIT.