His first postdoctoral research position was at the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy in Dwingeloo, The Netherlands. There, he worked closely with Thijs van der Hulst. His second postdoctoral research position was as a Welch Foundation Fellow at the University of Texas working with Greg Shields. He joined the faculty of the Astronomy Department at the University of Minnesota in 1989. He has enjoyed sabbatical years at the Max Planck Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Garching, Germany, hosted by Simon White, and at the Insitute for Astronomy in Cambridge, UK, hosted by Stephen Smartt.

Evan is a multiwavelength observer of extragalactic objects, with a concentration on nearby galaxies. He has studied the interstellar medium, the stellar populations, the chemical abundances, and the dark matter content of nearby galaxies, with a focus on dwarf galaxies.