My real name is Daniel Edward Smith. You probably already know me
as "Dansm". I was born in Utica, NY, on November 25, 1977, and grew up
in Oriskany, NY.
You can see a photo of me at left. My dad
works at Utica National Insurance; my mom subs in the high school,
and also takes care of the infinite number of jobs to do around the house.
My brother Greg (at right) is currently
majoring in Information Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology.As far as school goes, I attended N.A. Walbran Elementary School in Oriskany, then Oriskany Jr/Sr High School from 7th grade. In 4th grade I started playing trumpet, and have played ever since. I played in band and my favorite, jazz band, throughout high school. I enjoyed every moment of playing; I just had so much fun and could blow off some steam. This is our jazz band playing before my
graduation in 1995. I must have been ripping up a solo here, because the rest of my
trumpet section, Greg (my brother) and Diane Benedict, is ignoring me.
In 9th grade I started playing baseball,
and in 10th grade our team went 18-1 and went straight to the state finals. Unfortunately we
lost, but we still felt pretty good about our accomplishments. Hey, second in the state isn't
all that bad.
In my junior year I started running
cross country. Our team won the league for the next two years,
and in my senior year our team took 6 of the ten league all-star spots.
We were pretty impressed. Cross country was my favorite sport of all time.
I really wish I could continue it now, but I don't have nearly enough time.
In my senior year I decided to join the
golf team. In what I consider to be my best sport, our team went 18-2, won the league, and
took 3 out of 6 all-star slots (my brother was one of 'em). This photo shows our 1- through
4-man lineup (though not in that order) that we threw at those other teams (sorry guys). My
brother is on the left, then Kevin Riordan, who just graduated from ESF at Syracuse,
then me, then Jared Benedict. I think I attribute my love
of golf to my Dad, because he's the one that got us all into this great sport. Without his
encouragement and "instruction", there's no way we could have accomplished
so much. Thanks, Dad!
In June 1995 I graduated with my class of 38
from Oriskany. We were the best (and smallest) class our school had seen in years, with 20%
having an average of 90 or better. It made me very proud to graduate with this group of people.
The other grad in this photo is Kevin again.
In December '94 I found
that I had been accepted to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.
I was so excited. I have had a great time there, meeting lots of people
and having fun wrecking the curve for
all those snotty pre-meds out there. See, I don't want to go to med
school. I am perfectly satisfied doing molecular biology research, trying
to help the world out of some of these crises that we have gotten ourselves into lately.
While at Cornell I lived in High Rise 1, the best dorm on campus. Oh yeah, and anyone
interested in Cornell should definitely come here--it's the best school in the world,
especially for undergraduate biology and biology research.
On Christmas 1994 I received a Washburn D-10
acoustic guitar, and I
haven't stopped playing since. I try to play anything I can get my hands on, as you can see
from my acoustic songs page
and my Eagles songs page.
I bought a Peavey electric last March, and I jammed on Eagles songs for a while,
but I eventually went back to my musical roots: John Denver and Simon & Garfunkel.
So I'm only playing acoustic now, and singing a lot. As you can see,
that's me before my first gig, holding my Washburn.
On May 17, 1997 I bought a Martin D-1 acoustic. It's an incredible guitar and I love to play
it. My fingers just seem to glide over the fretboard. It's gotten me
even more interested in playing and has sparked a huge growth in
my playing abilities and in my acoustic page :). The photo to the right
is me playing my D-1 in my back yard. If you're in the market for an acoustic guitar,
check out a Martin!
From January 1998 through August 1999 I worked in the lab of Eric Alani
at Cornell. The Alani lab studies DNA repair in baker's yeast.
The work that I and others have done in the lab will help us understand
the causes of cancer and may eventually be used to help treat people suffering
from hereditary cancers. Just remember: when DNA mismatch repair in our cells is nonfunctional,
we accumulate mutations at a rate 30-fold faster than normal. The photo at right
features myself, Eric Alani, and another undergraduate in the lab, Tony Quach.
The photo was taken at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean's Convocation
where Tony and I won awards for undergraduate research. Eric was the best
boss anyone in biology could hope for.
I'm currently in the middle of my latest project, aptly titled "Go Solo Acoustic."
I've been playing out at local open mics and trying to get some bigger gigs.
You can check out my work at Daniel E. Smith: Singer/Songwriter.
I've got sound clips and lyrics to my own songs, and a performance schedule! On the left,
you can see me playing Martin Sexton's "Glory Bound" during the
Feb. 6, 1998 Big Red Barn Coffeehouse.
On May 30, 1999 I graduated from Cornell University. The entire graduating class
consisted of over 5000 people, including about 3500 undergraduates with 900 in
the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (my college). Anyone in a black robe
in the photo at right is a graduate (I'm over to the left...). I graduated with a Bachelor of Science
in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Genetics and Molecular/Cellular Biology. Let me tell you,
the feeling of entering the stadium that day with 40,000 spectators cheering you on
was incredible. The photo at left shows my family and I right after the ceremony:
myself, Greg, Mom, and Dad.
Since I just graduated, you're asking yourself right now "what is he doing next year?" Well, I've decided to go to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D in developmental genetics (translation: I want to study genes involved in animal development). After checking out a bunch of schools, I chose to attend Harvard University's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. The National Science Foundation is even nice enough
to pay me! I'm really looking forward to having this chance
to further my education, do some great research, and get into the Boston acoustic music
scene. I start there in September 1999. I'll be getting familiar with the image shown at
right (Harvard Yard) and the image shown below
(the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Building in Boston) since I'll be there for at
least 5 years... Hey, at least the city is a great place to live and work
for young people. I'm just a small-town upstate New Yorker;
I'll have to get used to this!
Well, I guess that's about all for me. I'm really not that interesting, as you can tell, but I try to keep busy. Thank you for reading my page. If you got this far it really means a lot to me, because I usually skip over everyone else's personal information. See you cruisin' the info superhighway.
