Fuchs earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2007. Afterward, he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral associate. In 2011, he joined the Cornell faculty of Applied and Engineering Physics. In 2012 he received a Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and in 2013 he received an Early Faculty Career Award from the National Science Foundation and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.