Daniel R Neal earned his B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Aero/Astro Engineering and Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1984. Upon completion of his degree, Neal joined Sandia National Laboratories where he would spend the next 12 years. In 1996, he co-founded WaveFront Sciences, Inc. In 2007, he became Director of Research and Development at AMO, and during this time he also spent two years as a Research Fellow at Abbott. In 2017, he became a Research Fellow for Johnson & Johnson Vision, spending only two years before returning to WaveFront Dynamics as CEO.

In 2015, Neal received OSA’s David Richardson Medal “for innovative technical leadership in the design, fabrication, and commercialization of wavefront sensing devices.” He is also a Fellow of OSA.