After graduating from Penn with a doctorate in the history of science, Simon Baatz taught American Studies at universities in Britain. He returned to the United States in 2000 to take up a research position in the history of medicine at the National Institutes of Health and subsequently held a three-year appointment as a visiting associate professor of history at George Mason University. His most recent book, For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago (HarperCollins, 2008; paperback, 2009) was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award.