His research contributions are characterized by a wide curiosity and ability to utilize the study method appropriate to the stage of knowledge and the question, whether mechanisms in animals and man, predictors and causes in populations and individuals, or therapy in mass trials. He has over the years addressed major questions about the relation of sympathetic activity and heart rate to hypertension and its complications, the inter-relations of obesity, insulin resistance, and hypertension, of cardiac output and peripheral resistance to borderline hypertension, and the results of and creation of ventricular hypertrophy. His studies among populations, including the Tecumseh Study, have addressed prediction of complications and the potential for preventing high blood pressure in the first place. He has led or participated in the more innovative therapeutic trials including the VALUE and the LIFE trials and ALLHAT.