Steven Jan studied music at the University of Leeds and went on to complete a PhD there, entitled 'Aspects of Mozart 's Music in G Minor: Toward the Identification of Common Structural and Compositional Characteristics’, under the supervision of Professor Julian Rushton. The dissertation was published by Garland in 1995 in their Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities series. Before joining the Music Department at Huddersfield in January 2001 he taught at the University of East Anglia and in the School of Academic Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. He is currently Senior Lecturer and Music/Music Technology Research Coordinator.

• Music and memetics
• Music and evolutionary thought/theory
• Music theory and analysis
• Computer-aided musicology, music theory and music analysis
• Computational creativity
• Musicological research on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven