Daniel earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Central College in Pella, IA and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Vennerstrom. He then completed post-doctoral training at the University of Kansas as a medicinal chemist in the NIH Funded Specialized Chemistry Center as part of the NCATS Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Aubé.
He opened his academic lab at Purdue University in the Borch Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in the College of Pharmacy in 2015. His lab has been continuously funded by the NIH with drug discovery projects in infectious disease and pain.
He founded Carbonix, Inc in 2026 to pursue translation of narrow-spectrum antibiotic technology developed in his lab at Purdue University.