Seinfeld grew up in Elmira, New York, and attended the University of Rochester, where he earned a B.S. in chemical engineering in 1964. He then went to Princeton University, where he received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1967. His doctoral dissertation, entitled "Optimal control of distributed-parameter systems," was concerned with the theory of control and optimization of distributed-parameter systems, which are systems governed by partial differential equations.