at Warner Pacific College in Portland in 1977, B.A.
in chemistry at Reed College, Portland, in 1979, Ph.D.
in biochemistry at Washington State University in 1982, and post-doc at the University of Toronto until 1984.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Epigenetics published by Oxford University Press.
In 1975, Skinner married Roberta Anne McMaster.