Originally from New Zealand, he received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in physics, where he proposed a model for the interior of Jupiter.

He is well known for applying fluid mechanics and magnetohydrodynamics to understand the internal structure and evolution of planets and moons.

The iron, by the action of its weight, will propagate a crack into the mantle and would subsequently sink and reach the Earth's core in weeks.

In 1984, he received the H. C. Urey Prize awarded by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.

Stevenson is a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.