Iden completed his PhD thesis titled "Studying Solvent Effects on Intrinsic Photophysics Using Gas-Phase Spectroscopy" at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His PhD work took place at the interface of laser spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, leveraging the gas-phase environment of the mass spectrometer to study the intrinsic photophysics of fluorophore ions and how their fluorescence properties change with controlled modifications to their local molecular environment, such as encapsulation by macrocyclic host molecules or stepwise addition of solvent.

In the group of Prof. Steen Brøndsted Nielsen, Iden will study the photophysics of cryogenically cooled ions in vacuo, and will help develop novel instrumentation to make fluorescence collection in mass spectrometers more accessible to researchers.