 B. in Chemistry and Physics, both with highest honors, from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1975.He received a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University in 1979 where he was a recipient of an NSF Graduate Fellowship and studied under the guidance of Peter G. Wolynes.The following year Skinner spent as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University where he worked with Hans Andersen and Michael Fayer.