text: Stevens was born into a military family. In 1969 his father died in the Air Force, and his mother took several part-time jobs to support the family. He was raised in Auburn, Maine.
  In 1980, Stevens joined the Army under their split option training program and conducted basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey and advanced individual training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. While engaged in his military service, Stevens entered the University of Southern Maine in the Computer Science program in 1981. However, an enthusiastic professor (John Ricci) converted him to the study of Chemistry. He spent two summers working as an intern at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island with Professor Ricci, and Drs. Thomas Koetzle and Dick McMullan, where he first learned how to determine the molecular structure of compounds by X-ray and neutron diffraction. While there he also met a University of Southern California research team led by Dr. Robert Bau; after he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at USM, he entered the University of Southern California in pursuit of a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry working with Professor Robert Bau and Nobel Laureate Professor, George Olah. He completed his Ph.D. in 26 months, graduating in 1988.
  Although science is a major part of his life, Stevens climbs mountains with his wife and children and runs ultramarathons including the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run and American River 50 Mile Endurance Run, and in 2011 he successfully completed the 156 mile Marathon des Sables across the Moroccan Sahara Desert. Currently working on climbing the 7 highest mountains on the 7 continents, he has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elbrus, Aconcagua, Vinson Massif and Mt. Kosciuszko.  Next mountains are Mt. Everest and Denali.