Stephen M. Black began his career at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1982. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology with Honors in 1986 and obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from the same institution in 1990. Stephen M. Black then gained postdoctoral training for one year at the University of Edinburgh studying Molecular Pharmacology before spending two years studying Molecular Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Stephen M. Black has received many academic appointments over the course of his career, beginning with an appointment as a Research Chemist with the University of California, San Francisco in 1993. The University of California, San Francisco promoted him to Assistant Professor in 1994 and he held this position until 1999. From 1999 through 2006 he held Associate Professor positions with Northwestern University, the University of Montana, and the University of Washington. The University of Montana made him a full-time Professor in 2005 and the Medical College of Georgia (now Augusta University) did the same in 2006. In 2010 he was then appointed as a Regents’ Professor.  A Regents’ Professorship represents the highest academic status bestowed by the University System of Georgia. It is meant to recognize a substantial, significant and ongoing record of scholarly achievement that has earned high national esteem over a sustained period.  The title is awarded by the Board of Regents, which governs the University System of Georgia, only upon the unanimous recommendation of the president, the chief academic officer, the appropriate academic dean and three other faculty members named by the president, and upon the approval of the Chancellor and the committee on academic affairs.
Stephen M. Black has extensive administrative experience being Research Director of Neonatology at Northwestern University and Vascular Biology of St. Patrick Hospital at the University of Montana, the Basic Science Director of the Cardiovascular Discovery Institute, chief of the division of Translational & Regenerative Medicine and chair for basic research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona as well as serving as the director of the Center for lung Vascular Pathobiology.
With respect to his research expertise, Stephen Black is a vascular biologist whose laboratory takes a translational/integrative approach to the roles played by oxidative and nitrosative stress in the development of pulmonary hypertension, lung injury, and stroke. His lab has been supported by extramural funding for over 20 years.  Over this time period he has been awarded over $50MM in funding from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, March of Dimes foundation, and the Fondation le Duq. Currently, he has funding via several NIH awards including two P01 awards focused on ventilator mediated lung injury and pulmonary vascular disease. He has also trained both MD and PhD investigators and a significant number have gone on to independent academic careers.