Stephen is originally from Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway.

He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2008 with a First-Class MChem in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry. As part of his degree, he spent a year working as a medicinal chemist at GlaxoSmithKline in Stevenage.

In 2008, Stephen began his doctoral studies at the University of Oxford (University College), earning a DPhil in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Martin Smith. His research focussed on the total synthesis of the Gephyrotoxin family of frog toxin alkaloids.

He then joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge as an MRC Career Development Fellow in the group of Prof. Jason Chin FRS, where he developed strain-promoted click reactions for site-specific protein labelling in E. coli via AMBER stop-codon suppression.

In 2014, Stephen was awarded a Marie Curie International Fellowship and moved to the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University to work with Prof. Emily Balskus. There, he pioneered the use of abiotic, non-enzymatic reactions in metabolically engineered bacteria. He returned to the University of Cambridge in 2016 to complete the fellowship, hosted by Prof. Steve Ley CBE FRS.

Stephen joined the University of Edinburgh in 2017 as a Lecturer in Biotechnology. His independent research sits at the interface of synthetic chemistry and synthetic biology, with a focus on developing sustainable biomanufacturing technologies. In 2019, he was seconded to the California Institute of Technology to work with Nobel Laureate Prof. Frances Arnold on enzyme directed evolution. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2020 and awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to advance biocompatible chemistry for sustainable chemical synthesis.

In 2023, Stephen was promoted to full Professor and Chair of Chemical Biotechnology. In 2025, he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant and became Director of the Carbon-Loop Sustainable Biomanufacturing Hub – a £14M UKRI initiative uniting six universities and 47 industrial partners to pioneer waste-to-chemicals technologies through engineering biology.

During his doctorate studies at Oxford, he was awarded the Eli Lilly Prize in Organic Chemistry (2009) and later the Eli Lilly UK Prize in Organic Chemistry (2011), recognising excellence in synthetic chemistry.

In 2019, Stephen received the Principles Innovation Award from the University of Edinburgh for translational impact arising from his research at the chemistry-biology interface. He was awarded the Dave Kelly Cup at the Gregynog Synthesis Meeting in 2022 for the best early-career research talk.

In 2023, Stephen was awarded both the Colworth Medal by the Biochemical Society and the Norman Heatley Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry, recognising outstanding early-career contributions to biochemistry and chemical biology, respectively. In 2025, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) in recognition of his leadership in chemical biotechnology.

Stephen has appeared on BBC Earth, BBC World News, Times Radio, STV News, and BBC Newsround, discussing climate change, the petrochemical industry, and microbial technologies. His TEDxVienna talk on synthetic biology has reached over 55,000 viewers globally.

His research has been featured in The Guardian, The Independent, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and C&EN, cited in the UK Parliament’s 2025 House of Lords Report on Engineering Biology, and highlighted in The House magazine. His recent work on turning plastic waste into paracetamol was covered by 1,000+ outlets and broadcast in 27 countries.

Stephen actively contributes to science communication through articles for TEDx Magazine, the Microbiology Society, the Biochemical Society, and RSC Chemistry World. Recognised as an “Inspirational Innovator” by Edinburgh Innovations, he also advocates for equity in science, including through Nature Methods and LGBTQ+ inclusion events.