Stephen B. Smith was born in Bakersfield, California in 1950. After serving in the U.S. Army, Smith obtained a B.S. degree (Biology) in 1975 from California State College, Bakersfield, and a Ph.D. degree (Physiology) in 1980 from the University of California, Davis. Smith was a postdoctoral research associate and subsequently a research chemist at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, where he demonstrated that bovine marbling adipose tissue preferentially uses glucose for de novo lipogenesis. Stephen Smith joined the faculty at Texas A&M University in 1983 and was promoted to professor in 1988. His research at Texas A&M University has focused primarily on adipose tissue differentiation and development. In addition to his domestic research program, Smith has collaborated with the Kyoto University Livestock Research Farm, in Japan; CSIRO Division of Food Science and Technology of Australia; and Yeungnam University of Korea to document the contribution of stearoyl-CoA desaturase gene expression to marbling adipose tissue composition. Smith has published over 110 refereed articles and has mentored 11 M.S. and 13 Ph.D. candidates. He is a member of the American Meat Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society of Nutritional Sciences, and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. Steve and his wife, Dana, have a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Ethan.