Graduate Alumni Spotlight: Daniel Vogel, M.S.'23

"The faculty at Hood are top notch. They are engaging, take a personal interest in all the students and have current, real-world experience."

Daniel Vogel M.S.'23

Program

Bioinformatics (M.S.)

Department

Computer Science & Information Technology

Alumni
Graduate School
Graduate Student

Alumni
Biomedical & Environmental Graduate Programs
Computer Science & Information Technology Graduate Programs
Graduate School
Graduate Student
Health Sciences

09/18/2024

Daniel Vogel, M.S.’23, is a recent graduate of Hood College’s bioinformatics master’s program. Before Hood, Vogel graduated from the University of Maryland in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. He then earned a master’s in business administration in 1993. Vogel currently works at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) laboratory working for Battelle National Biodefense Institute (BNBI) at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. We spoke with him about his experiences in the bioinformatics program and how the content knowledge he gained in the program has helped his professional development.

Tell us about your educational and career background

I have had a long career working primarily in IT roles. I started as a systems programmer, followed by systems admin and IT director roles at UMUC, Central Texas College and Hagerstown Community College.

More recently, I have switched to roles supporting scientific computing, initially at the Army USAMRIID lab, and presently at National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) laboratory working for Battelle National Biodefense Institute (BNBI) at Fort Detrick.

I am the manager of the high-performance computing systems used for bioinformatics. I have a B.S. in computer science and MBA from University of Maryland.

When you were choosing colleges, what was your deciding factor for picking Hood College?

Hood College has a good reputation among my colleagues at the NBACC lab. A few that I met were already in the bioinformatics program at Hood. They had good things to say.

I also wanted to go to a local college where I could attend face-to-face classes and not a lot of online courses. I value the interaction in the live classes, and for some difficult coursework, I think it is the better format.

In what ways do you feel your time at Hood College helped you in your career path?

I had just started a new role supporting the bioinformatics computer systems at NBACC, and I had no idea what bioinformatics was, and I do not have any background in biology.

I immediately enrolled at Hood and soon was learning the tools used such as the R programming language and online bioinformatics databases that are used by the scientists in this field. The Hood program included leadership coursework, which also helped me at work.

Soon, I was promoted to the HPC manager role at work. I think enrolling in continuing education at Hood was respected by management and may have been a factor in my promotion to a leadership role.

What were some positives you enjoyed about Hood College?

The faculty at Hood are top notch. They are engaging, take a personal interest in all the students and have current, real-world experience. This enables them to give career advice and focus the coursework on relevant subject matter and issues.

As a current employee at the Battelle National Biodefense Institute, do you think the bioinformatics program prepared you well?

The bioinformatics program prepared me well. I learned to use software tools that I would be supporting at work. I was able to improve a scientific software application used in our lab as my M.S. capstone project.

I am currently considered a subject matter expert in this software and improving it has become part of my new responsibilities.

What are some fun facts about you that you would like to add?

I was able to hire one of my fellow bioinformatics students to work on my team at the NBACC lab. Since we had already taken classes together, I knew he was talented and contributed to classes. He is working out great as part of our team!

Inspired by Daniel’s accomplishments as a social studies teacher? Ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn more about Hood College’s graduate programs, such as bioinformatics, by clicking here.