S. Julian Gibbs received his D.D.S. from Emory University in 1956 and his Ph.D. in Radiation Biology from the University of Rochester in 1968. After working as an Assistant Professor of Radiology and of Dental Research at the University of Rochester, Gibbs moved to Tennessee to work as Assistant Professor of Radiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Consultant in Dentistry at Veterans Administration Hospital (1970). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1976 and became an Adjunct Professor of Space Science at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, Tennessee, in 1985. Gibbs worked at Vanderbilt until 2000, retiring as Professor Emeritus.