 His thesis work was in astrophysics on the soft x-ray background.During his graduate work he worked on x-ray micro calorimeters and several sounding rocket and Shuttle payloads.After receiving his PhD, Dr Edwards was hired as a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he was co-investigator on the ALEXIS satellite, developed superconducting tunnel junction detectors, a lunar orbiter, a Mars mission, a Europa orbiter and the world's first optical cryocooler.