Daniel Birchall

Daniel J. "Dan" Birchall (born 1971) is an American technologist, writer, researcher and photographer who works in the fields of astronomy and sustainability.
Early life and education
Birchall was born and raised in New Jersey. He briefly studied architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and telecommunications management at DeVry Technical Institute, before ultimately pursuing astronomy and graduating from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. He has lived in Hawaii since 1999.
Career
After beginning his career in computing and information technology, Birchall diverged into writing, photography, research and sustainability, typically in roles leveraging his technological experience.
Computing
Birchall encountered computers in secondary school, and BITNET and the Internet while a university student. From 1990 to 2005 he worked in information technology as a programmer, systems operator and administrator, webmaster, web developer and consultant. He was also active in the creation of Usenet newsgroups, and moderated the comp.binaries.geos group. In the late 1990s, he became active in the fight against spam, and from 2002 to 2003 served as Executive Director of the anti-spam SpamCon Foundation. He continues to run a few small web sites and occasional blogs.
Writing
After a girlfriend introduced him to the band Queensrÿche in 1990, he founded the fanzine Screaming in Digital and edited it for several years, distributing it through email until web access became common. He also reviewed music and interviewed musicians for Consumable Online, a general music e-zine, throughout the late 1990s. While working in information technology, he wrote articles on a freelance basis, and later authored two chapters for the second edition of book Internet Secrets. Since 2004 he has edited, and sometimes co-written, reports in the sustainability field for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin from the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Research
From 2004 to 2009, Birchall worked for the graduate Institute for Astronomy, supporting observations on its 2.2-meter telescope atop Mauna Kea and assisting with science outreach programs. During this time he also performed occasional safety work for the adaptive optics lasers at the nearby Keck Observatory and Gemini North telescope, and trained to observe on the UK Infrared Telescope. He was recruited by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2007 as an associate member of the multinational Nearby Supernova Factory collaboration, where he participated in the discovery and spectroscopic typing of several dozen type Ia supernovae. Since 2009, he has worked full-time at Japan's national Subaru Telescope, most recently as an Observation System Associate, and studied supernovae part-time as a research associate at the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. He remains involved in science education and outreach, visiting local classrooms as part of the Journey Through The Universe program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
Photography
Based on his experience in technology and as a hobbyist in photography, Birchall was approached by the International Institute for Sustainable Development in 2004, and joined its reporting service as a Digital Editor. He has since photographed dozens of international negotiations, workshops, and conferences of United Nations bodies and other groups for the Institute's Earth Negotiations Bulletin. His photographs for the Bulletin have been widely republished, and his independent freelance photography has appeared in IEEE Spectrum and AIR International magazines.
Personal life
Birchall lives with his wife and daughter in Hawaii. His daughter from a previous relationship lives in England.
He appeared in Amy Hoff's 2007 independent film The Path of Souls as the Chocolatier King.

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