James Skinner attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he was a double major in physics and chemistry (highest honors in each major). He then entered Harvard University, where he studied with Professor Peter Wolynes, received an NSF graduate fellowship, and graduated with his Ph.D. in chemical physics in 1979. His postdoctoral work at Stanford was under the direction of Hans Andersen, and was supported by an NSF postdoctoral fellowship. In 1981 Skinner joined the faculty of Columbia University, becoming Professor of Chemistry in 1986. In 1990 he moved to the University of Wisconsin, as the Joseph O. Hirschfelder Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Theoretical Chemistry Institute. In 2017 Skinner moved to his current position as Crown Family Professor of Molecular Engineering in the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago.