Daniel is a biologist from Panama, whose research lays in the intersection between community, microbial and disease ecology. During his time as an undergraduate student at the Universidad de Panamá, he witnessed first-hand the dramatic declines of Panamanian amphibians due to outbreaks of the pathogenic chytrid fungus. Such experience strongly shaped his career towards the study of host-pathogen interactions, with an emphasis on the ecological factors influencing amphibian’s susceptibility and population responses to the chytrid fungus. After his undergraduate studies in Panama, Daniel went on to do a master’s in Evolutionary Biology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), where he studied the role of developmental plasticity in the infection dynamics of the chytrid fungus in salamanders. Daniel, then, during his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech (USA), expanded the scope of his research by incorporating the study of the ecology of the microbial communities associated with the amphibian skin, and their interaction with the chytrid fungus. After his Ph.D., Daniel worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil) and at Penn State University (USA), where he studied the influence of coinfections by multiple parasites and landscape characteristics in the infection dynamics of the amphibian chytrid. Throughout his academic career, Daniel has also been involved in conservation efforts of Panamanian amphibians’, mainly in the establishment and maintenance of captive colonies and conducting field trials to guide reintroduction efforts.