Prof. Tom Daniel received his BS and MS from University of Wisconsin and his PhD from Duke University. He has been a faculty member in the University of Washington (UW) since his initial appointment in 1984 and was the founding chair of the Department of Biology at UW from 2000 to 2008. Prior to joining UW, he was the Bantrell Postdoctoral Fellow in Engineering Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. He is currently the Joan and Richard Komen Endowed Chair of Biology, Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering, and of Computer Science and Engineering. He is also the co-Director of the UW Institute of Neuroengineering and the Director of the Air Force Center of Excellence on Nature-Inspired Flight Technologies.

Prof. Daniel’s research programs focuses on biomechanics and sensory systems, particularly on neurons and neuronal networks. He and his team strive to address questions about the physics, engineering and neural control of movement in biology. Prof. Daniel has been involved in editorials for a number of renowned academic journals, such as Science, PLoS Computational Biology, and Biology Letters.

Prof. Daniel has been recognized for his scholarly contribution by a number of honors, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013), the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the "Genius Award”) (1996-2001), and a number of teaching awards at UW. He has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 2012) and serves also on the Board of Directors (since 2011) and the Scientific Advisory Board (since 2006) of the Allen Institute of Brain Science.

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