Since 2002 he has been a professor at Montclair State University, in the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies:

Since December 2003 Dr. C. has been a principal investigator in NASA's Earth Science Enterprise program, with the first project using data from NASA's Earth Observation System satellite-borne instruments to investigate the mapping of carbon pools in the SW U.S., including the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The first proposal was selected in December 2003 and ended in May 2008. A second NASA-sponsored research project entitled "A new approach for mapping woody plants in the southwestern United States using NASA Earth Observing System Data" was selected for three years beginning in January 2008. A third proposal was selected in 2009 to investigate a multiangle remote sensing approach to mapping shrubs in Arctic tundra.

Dr. C. is also a member of the NASA MISR Science Team, the NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Terrestrial Ecology Science Team, the TEST Vegetation Structure Working Group (2008), and (officially since 2011) the NASA MODIS Science Team. He also served as a PI in the NASA Land Cover Land Use Change Science Team from 2004-2008. Since 2006 he has also been a PI in the North American Carbon Program.