His academic background includes a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in Chemical Physics. Like many writers, he began after deciding that he could tell a story as well as those whose novels appear in the stores. The success of Tepper and Kress suggests that this is not a bad strategy for an aspiring SF writer.
Science fiction requires a lot of skills for a first-time novelist.
There are the same requirements for plot, character, and style as any other literary form. That's a cool idea. It's a lot to ask of any beginning writer. Perhaps it is due to skills acquired in the author's previous work that Signal to Noise meets the requirements of a good science fiction novel. Jack Potter, the main character, is a researcher in the Academy of Pure and Applied Sciences.