Carson performed his undergraduate education at the College of Charleston and performed research under the direction of Justin Wyatt and Marcello Forconi where he worked on developing novel, bis-indenyl ligands for transition metal catalysis and chemically modifying proteins with fluorine NMR probes, respectively. After graduating in 2015, Carson went on to work for Mitochem Therapeutics, Inc. as a research associate under the direction of Craig Beeson and Christopher Lindsey where he worked on synthesizing small molecules for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa.

Carson joined the Lindsley lab as a graduate student in 2017 and is currently focused on the further development of mGluR7 PAMs.