Daniel Mindiola is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an organometallic chemist and leads a research group studying organometallic catalysts involved in various industrially relevant chemical transformations. One of the subjects of his research is the activation of the molecule methane, the major component of natural gas, and the long-term application of this research area is to harness methane as a carbon source via non-combustion processes. In addition to the functionalization of methane, his work has highlighted the use of Earth-abundant, early transition metal catalysts in dehydrogenation reactions of linear alkanes that form terminal olefins. Dan views himself as a fundamental chemist, focusing on understanding the mechanism of a given reaction and using that information to optimize the catalytic activity of new compounds. Because his students receive a well-rounded chemistry education throughout their training, he is proud to say that graduating from the Mindiola group leads to successful career prospects. After moving to Michigan from Venezuela with his family, Dan found a passion for the sciences in high school and in college at Michigan State University. Thanks to the encouragement of his undergraduate research adviser, he was a recipient of an ACS Scholars Program fellowship, and he continues to give back to the program, mentoring underrepresented minority students and serving on the Minority Affairs Committee of the American Chemical Society. Dan earned his PhD from MIT, completed a postdoctoral research position at the University of Chicago, started his independent career at Indiana University in 2002, and moved to Penn in 2013, where he established a lab outfitted with a custom nitrogen purification system. He reflects on how his Venezuelan heritage has influenced his career and hopes to encourage young people that a humble background doesn’t preclude them from becoming participants in the scientific workforce.