Daniel was born on September 26, 1967 in San Antonio Texas.  His parents and he moved to the great city of Houston when he was six years old, where he lived until he was twenty-two years old.  He attended the University of Houston where he earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and philosophy.  In 1990, he moved to Lubbock Texas where he enrolled in graduate school and earned his Master’s degree in microbiology and obtained his first taste of scientific research.  1992 was quite interesting for Daniel, when he was accepted to and enrolled in the medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.  More importantly, he met Vanessa that year, who, four years later, became his wife.  During his year in medical school, Daniel realized that he preferred scientific research to medicine and decided to pursue that career path.  He switched to the doctoral program at Texas Tech HSC in 1993 and began his dissertation research in cell biology, where he made contributions to both cancer and hypertension research.  In 1998, the scientist with whom Daniel was working was appointed to the faculty of the Institute of Molecular Medicine of the University of Texas-Houston Health Sciences Center.  Daniel, like a faithful graduate student, moved to Houston, along with Vanessa (of course!).  He earned his Ph.D. in 1999.  During the course of earning this degree, he was given many opportunities to teach college biology and cell biology.  In so doing, he realized that his love for teaching was at least as great as his love for research.  Therefore, immediately upon completion of his doctorate, Daniel enrolled in a fast-track program and obtained his teaching certification for high school science.  During that training, he taught chemistry and biology at Nimitz Senior High School in Houston.  While there, he became involved with the Texas Aerospace Scholars Program and spent an incredible week on site at the Johnson Space Center with some of the most talented and inspiring high school students he has ever met.  Upon completion of that training and his first year in the classroom, he was offered a research position at the University of Texas-Houston HSC School of Public Health where he is currently employed as a post doctoral fellow and is involved in genetic research.