Daniel Edelson is the executive director of BSCS, a national center for research and development in science education. Over his career, he has been a curriculum and software developer, educational researcher, and advocate for educational reform. His work has explored project-based learning, geospatial technologies for inquiry learning, and teaching and learning in geoscience and geography.

Daniel Edelson is a curriculum and software developer, educational researcher, and advocate for science and social studies education reform. In his work, he draws on current research to develop products and programs that address the challenges of implementing effective science and social studies education in real-world settings at scale. Since January 2015, he has been the executive director of BSCS, a not-for-profit science education research and development center. From 2007-2014, he was the vice president for education at the National Geographic Society. Prior to National Geographic, he was a faculty member in the Learning Sciences Program at Northwestern University for 15 years. 

Daniel Edelson joined BSCS as executive director and president in January 2015. He brings significant experience as a curriculum and educational software developer, educational researcher, and advocate for science and social studies education to this role. From 2007-2014, Dr. Edelson was vice president for education at the National Geographic Society and executive director of the National Geographic Education Foundation. In these roles, Dr. Edelson led National Geographic’s educational outreach and reform efforts. From 1993-2007, Dr. Edelson was on the faculty at Northwestern University, where he had a joint appointment in education and computer science. At Northwestern, he conducted a program of integrated research and development focusing on earth and environmental science education. As a curriculum and software developer, Dr. Edelson is the lead author of a high school environmental science course, Investigations in Environmental Science: A Case-Based Approach to the Study of Environmental Systems, and an author of units in two comprehensive middle school science programs, Project-Based Inquiry Science and Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology (IQWST). He has also led the development of several educational software environments for visualizing and analyzing geographic data, including National Geographic FieldScope, My World GIS, and WorldWatcher. As a researcher and advocate, Dr. Edelson has written extensively on the importance of geoscience, geography, and environmental science education, and has published numerous research papers on motivation, instructional design, educational technology, and teacher professional development.