Steve Pollock was a professor at Louisiana State University. For the RIPE project, Steve identified algal carbon concentrating mechanisms and their components to try to integrate them into plants. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Toronto, his master's degree from York University, and his doctorate from Louisiana State University. Prior to joining the faculty of LSU, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institute of Plant Biology. Steve left academia to found the Triple N Oyster Farm.