Stephen B. Trippel, M.D. received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1970 and his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (now the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) in 1974. He completed his post-doctoral training at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital), a fellowship in orthopaedic research at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1980, and a Pediatric Endocrinology research fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He later served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School before joining the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2001, where he served as chair of the department until 2003.

Trippel's clinical practice as an orthopaedic surgeon at Roudebush VA Medical Center and Eskenazi Health focused on adult reconstructive surgery, and his research centered on musculoskeletal repair. In 2004, he received a NASA Space Act Award for his research on the enhancement of tissue engineering by the transfer of a growth factor gene. The award recognizes scientists whose inventions or scientific and technical contributions have helped NASA achieve its aeronautical and space goals. Trippel retired from Indiana University in 2019 and was named Professor Emeritus of Orthopaedic Surgery and Anatomy and Cell Biology.