Schneps has diverse research interests that include astrophysics, cognition and learning, science education, learning disabilities and dyslexia, television media, eyetracking and vision, computer image processing, and K-12 science learning.

Schneps, is the Executive Director of the Science Media Group, responsible for producing over 200 hours of nationally broadcast television programming on science learning, much of it on collaboration with the Annenberg Foundation. Schneps produced (with P. Sadler) the award-winning video on science learning A PRIVATE UNIVERSE, and MINDS OF OUR OWN well known for their depictions of Harvard and MIT graduates who are unable to answer grade school problems in science (such as the causes of the seasons).

Prior to his involvement in science education, Schneps was co-Director of the Wolbach Image Processing Laboratory (WIPL) at CfA, where he created capabilities for computer animation. Prior to his work at WIPL, Schneps carried out research in astrophysics (star formation and galactic distance scales) with J. Moran and M. Reid, using aperture synthesis techniques.

Schneps received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT (1979).