Dan Burns received his PhD in geophysics from MIT in 1986. He spent his early career at Unocal in both operations and research capacities. His years in the energy industry were followed by faculty positions at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Bentley College. He also performed work as a consultant in environmental, energy, and medical imaging industries. Burns returned to MIT and ERL as a Research Scientist in 1996, where he also served as an Associate Director for two years and an Executive Director for ten years. He is currently fully dedicated to research.