Seidel holds a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado and a Masters in Architectural Planning from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he studied under renowned architect Mies van der Rohe. Seidel has served as a faculty member at the University of Michigan and Virginia Tech, and he also taught at Central China Institute of Science and Technology. His work has been published in numerous academic journals, and he has also authored three books: Invisible Walls, Global Survival, and 2045.