Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and way too skinny for major college basketball, Steve went to the College of Wooster for his B.A. in geology. He worked with Mark Wilson there on some Pliocene fossils from Cyprus, and dropped organized basketball in order to sprint in circles around the track. Steve moved on to the University of Southern California for his M.S. and Ph.D. in geological sciences, working with Dave Bottjer on both degrees. In addition to growing his hair out and living near the beach, his M.S. work focused on the paleoecology of the unusual Early Cambrian helicoplacoid echinoderms preserved in the White-Inyo Mountains of eastern California. Research for his Ph.D. shifted to China and centered on the paleoecology of the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota of Yunnan Province, as well as the taphonomy of the phosphatized fossils of the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation of Guizhou Province. After a year as a postdoctoral researcher at USC, Steve became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2004. His research in all of the above areas continues, although his hair is now generally short again.