Michael Stein graduated from MIT in 1980 with a B.S. in mathematics and received the M.S. and Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford in 1982 and 1984. After spending a year at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, where he is now the Ralph and Mary Otis Isham Professor Emeritus of Statistics and the College. He was chairman of the department 1998-2001 and Master of the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division 2012-2018. Prof. Stein retired from Chicago in 2019 and presently has a position at Rutgers University.

Most of Stein's research has been in the area of spatial statistics and its applications to environmental sciences and astrophysics. His current research focuses on statistical models and methods for natural processes in space-time and the computational challenges that arise in studying such problems.

Michael Stein is married to Laurie Butler, a Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. They have one daughter, Ellyn, born in 1995. His outside interests include horseback riding and the guitar.