Steven Garrett received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1977. As the first F.V. Hunt Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, he spent a year at the University of Sussex in England followed by two years in the Physics Department at the University of California at Berkeley as a Fellow of the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. During that time, his research centered on acoustical investigations of superfluid hydrodynamics.

Dr. Garrett joined the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School in 1982 where his research efforts were concentrated on the development of fiber-optic sensors and thermoacoustic refrigerators. At NPS he was the Principle Investigator on the Space Thermo-Acoustic Refrigerator launched on the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-42) in 1992, and the Shipboard Electronic Thermoacoustic Chiller used on the USS Deyo (DD-989) in 1995.

He left NPS in 1995 to assume his current position as the United Technologies Corporation Professor of Acoustics in the Graduate Program in Acoustics and as Senior Scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory, both at Penn State University. At Penn State, his research has focused on a larger (>3kW) thermoacoustic chiller and a smaller commercial freezer (Tcold < -25 ºC). He is one of the founders of the ThermoAcoustics Corporation.

Prof. Garrett is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and was their first recipient of their Silver Medal in Interdisciplinary Acoustics (Physical and Engineering Acoustics). He has twice received an R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine, the Naval Postgraduate School Menneken Research Award, a Popular Science Magazine Award for Environmental Technology, the Helen Caldecott Award for Environmental Technology, and the Rolex Award for Enterprise (environment category).