Dr. Steve Greenbaum is CUNY Distinguished Professor of Physics at Hunter College in the City University of New York (CUNY) and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He also served (2008-14) as Executive Officer of the Ph.D. Program in Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Greenbaum earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from Brown University. He spent two years in the Semiconductor Branch of the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. as an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, and also spent sabbatical years as a Fulbright Scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a NASA/NRC Senior Research Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the team that designed the lithium ion batteries for the successful Mars Rover missions. He has also held Visiting Professor positions in the Chemistry Department at Stony Brook University, the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Rutgers University, the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University, the Laboratory for Solid State Physics of the University of Paris-Sud (XI), the School of Chemical Sciences at University of Padova, and the Department of Chemistry at University of Rome, La Sapienza.

Dr. Greenbaum's main research interest involves spectroscopic studies of disordered solids by magnetic resonance and synchrotron x-ray absorption, most of which has recently centered on materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion (i.e. batteries and fuel cells). He has authored or co-authored over 260 peer reviewed publications and given over 60 invited talks at national or international conferences. He has directly supervised the research of 20 postdoctoral associates, 28 Ph.D. students, and numerous MA and BA research students.

Dr. Greenbaum was the 2001 recipient of the Roosevelt Gold Medal for Science, bestowed by the New York Council of the United States Navy League, and the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, awarded jointly by the National Science Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He also received the 2003 Richard Nicholson Science Teaching Award. Dr. Greenbaum was selected as one of eleven Jefferson Science Fellows who served as Senior Science and Technology advisors to the U.S. State Department during the 2014-15 academic year. He was also recognized by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) by receiving their 2016 Distinguished Scientist Award. He was on sabbatical leave in 2018-19 at Ionic Materials, Inc. in Woburn, MA, and since then serves as a senior science advisor.