S. E. Hoffman is a scientist and writer, as well as a musician and classical singer. She has undergraduate degrees in geology and astronomy from San Francisco State University and a graduate degree in oceanography from Oregon State University. She is a geologist specializing in the origin and evolution of the Earth's crust. She wrote the original scientific paper that proposed that life on Earth originated in oceanic hydrothermal vents. Her studies of ancient rocks showed that Earth had an ocean at least 3.5 billion years ago and that the geochemical signatures of hydrothermal alteration in those rocks are exactly the same as those found in modern oceanic crust. She is a regular reviewer of science books for Publishers Weekly as well as a freelance science journalist.
