Bio
Daniel grew up in Tomball, TX (about 60 miles from TAMU). He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011, where he did two years of research with John F. Stanton on high-accuracy calculations of combustion radicals and was a Beckman Scholar. He then attended the University of Wisconsin—Madison for his graduate work, where he was a member of Ned Sibert’s group. His research focused on developing efficient theoretical models for the vibrational spectroscopy of cold clusters and molecules. His favorite molecule during this time was probably n-octylbenzene, but it was a close competition. From 2016-2019, he was a postdoc with Alán Aspuru-Guzik at Harvard University. Here, his research focused on computational materials science, mainly working in the areas of energy generation and storage. He contributed (on the computational and theoretical side) to the development of molecular materials that could be used in organic aqueous flow batteries for grid-level energy storage. Daniel began his independent career on the faculty at Texas A&M in the Fall of 2019, where he is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. He was named a Texas A&M Institute of Data Science Career Initiation Fellow in 2021 and a Cottrell Scholar in 2023.
Outside of science, Daniel enjoys running (still aiming for a sub-two-hour half marathon time) and has a long-running fantasy baseball league with friends from his youth. Since becoming an Assistant Professor, his team has finished in the top half of the league one time.
Employment
2019- Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University
2016-2019 Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Education
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2016
B.S. Chemistry, University of Texas–Austin, 2011
Honors and Awards
ACS Comp Division OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry, 2024
Finalist, ACS Energy Letters Lectureship Award, 2024
NSF CAREER Award, 2023
Montague-Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar, 2023
Cottrell Scholar, 2023
Texas A&M Institute of Data Science Career Initiation Fellow, 2021
Richard and Joan Hartl Excellence in Research Award for Physical Chemistry, University of Wisconsin– Madison, 2016
Poster Award, Physical Division, ACS National Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, 2015
Poster Award, Midwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2015
Beckman Scholar, 2010-2011