Daniel Barandiaran

College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Plants, Soils and Climate

Originally from Corpus Christi, TX, Danny moved to Colorado, where he attended the University of Northern Colorado, earning a B.S. in Earth Science with an emphasis in meteorology in 2009. Following graduation he moved to Santa Cruz where he attended the University of California Santa Cruz and earned an M.S. in Earth Science with a climatology emphasis in 2011. In 2012 Danny began attending USU as a Ph.D. student in the Plants, Soils and Climate department.

Early research led to two publications in prominent science journals, one furthering understanding of factors influencing monsoonal rainfall in sub-Saharan Africa, and the other revealing human-induced long-term trends in spring rainfall patterns of the U.S. Great Plains. Later research led to the development of a unique Utah snowpack reconstruction using tree-ring data developed at USU’s Dendro Research Lab, and evaluated current weather models’ ability to provide useful multi-year projections of Utah’s climate.

He will be graduating in Spring 2016, and is eager to continue conducting cutting-edge research and to serve the broader community with information and tools to guide decision-making of water resource usage. Danny lives in Logan with his wife and their daughter. When not working, he enjoys knitting, hiking and long-distance running.