My scholarly work includes a strong combination of both physics and learning research. In my physics research, I strive to understand how fundamental quarks and gluons combine to form nuclear matter, and in my learning research, I investigate how to improve both student conceptual understanding and their ability to solve ill-structured, open-ended problems. Both areas of scholarship come from my drive to understand how things work and a passion to help students learn. A common thread across both areas is that advances can be made by seeking quantitative rather than qualitative answers to research questions.