Dion D. Daniels, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Science Department
University of Belize

Biography

Dr. Daniels has a Bachelor‘s Degree in agronomy from Universidad Central de Las Villas (UCLV) in Santa Clara, Cuba. Immediately after completing his program of studies, he started his Master‘s Degree in Plant Biotechnology from the same university, which he completed in 1999. Once again, he took no break and embarked on his doctoral program at the same university where his dissertation was on somatic embryogenesis and genetic transformation of the hybrid cultivar FHIA-21 (AAAB) (Musa spp). He successfully defended his dissertation in 2003 and returned to Belize.

In 2003, at the completion of 12 years of studies in Cuba, he started working at the Faculty of Science & Technology, University of Belize (UB) as manager of the plant tissue culture laboratory. Thereafter he transitioned into the classroom as a lecturer imparting several courses in the Biology program. In 2007, he was promoted to the academic rank of assistant professor and in 2020 he was promoted to associate professor. Over his tenure at UB, Dr. Daniels has imparted 15 different courses to our students. He has also tutored 98 students doing their thesis as a part of their requirement to complete their bachelor‘s degree in Biology.

Dr. Daniels has 25 publications in international journals with the latest being co-authoring a chapter in the book entitled, Somatic Embryogenesis - methods and protocols, which was published by Springer in 2022. He plans to continue in the academic formation of our young Belizean minds.