Professor Carroll earned his BS (1985) in physics from NC State University (Raleigh) and his PhD (1993) in physics from Wesleyan University in (Middletown, CT).  Dr. Carroll became a research associate at the Max-Planck-Insitut für Metallforschung in Stuttgart Germany.  In 1997 Professor Carroll began the Laboratory for Nanotechnology at Clemson University (SC).  At Clemson he established a program in organic devices based upon carbon nanotube nanocomposites demonstrating enhanced lifetime and performance in OLEDs for the first time. 

In 2003, Professor Carroll's group moved to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem NC to establish the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials.  This move allowed the research team to expand its work into the fields of biomedical nanotechnologies and to continue their work in nanocomposite organic devices such as photovoltaics. 

Professor Carroll's team continues to push the state-of-the-art in performance of organic solar cells, having set performance records twice in recent years.  Today professor Carroll's primary research interests are: Growth and assembly of novel nanostructures, Optics of nanostructures and Nano-photonics, Quantum-functional properties of nanophase blends, Organic nanocomposite devices and technologies including organic photovoltaics, lighting systems, and IR sensors, Biomedical-nanotechnology including smart therapeutics, advanced/responsive tissue scaffolding technology, and biological-technology signal transduction.