Danny grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and spent many seasons exploring the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and the California coast, where his passion for understanding the natural world and its complex interconnections from the atmosphere to the soil was born. He received a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and Geological Engineering from Princeton University in 2019 where he also captained the men's lightweight rowing team. After graduating, he worked in the Bay Area as an environmental consultant field engineer. He performed numerous site investigations throughout California, primarily sampling groundwater, soil, and soil vapor. However, his passions for meteorology, hydrology (and mountains) led him to join the Mountain Hydrology Research Group in Fall 2021. He set out working for the Sublimation of Snow project and spent the 2022-2023 winter in Gothic, Colorado supporting the campaign as a field researcher.

His research focuses on explaining what causes more or less streamflow to flow out of the mountains than is expected. He terms these events "hydrologic anomalies" and has centered his work on investigating three different hypotheses that could drive this phenomenon: sublimation (transition from ice → water vapor), precipitation measurement uncertainty, and seasonal weather patterns. He is planning to submit his Ph.D. dissertation and graduate in August 2026.

In his free time, Danny pursues his passion for snow, weather, and avalanche education by teaching avalanche awareness courses with the Northwest Avalanche Center, and providing weekly winter weather forecasts and weather data access through his and Clinton Alden's weather website, cascademountainweather.

Off the computer, he can be found running, nordic skiing, or off in the backcountry skiing, backpacking, trail running, fast-packing or romping around with his wife and his dog, Denali.