Background

Daniel Kiernan came to the University of South Carolina in Sumter in 2008 after working at Georgian Court University in New Jersey as a laboratory coordinator and adjunct professor. Prior to this, he spent four years in Michigan, where he taught at Lake Superior State University and obtained a M.S. in biology at Central Michigan University. In the late nineties, he taught high school biology in both the public and private sectors after obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 

Kiernan is presently a senior instructor of biology at the University of South Carolina in Sumter.  Focusing on science education, he earned his Ph.D. in 2015 from the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. His dissertation research focused on how inquiry-based teaching as opposed to more traditional forms of teaching, impacts students in the college science classroom. This work was published in 2019. He has also conducted research on muscle development in dendrobranchiate shrimp, with comparison to Artemia. He is interested in looking into how the muscle system develops during naupliar development. His work on this topic was published in 2006.

Having research experience in both the fields of biology and education gives Kiernan a unique opportunity to conduct research in both of these areas at the university level. When not teaching or conducting research, Kiernan advises USC Sumter’s Student Government Association, works with students on independent research projects (largely looking into the plankton of our local Swan Lake Iris Gardens), is annually involved with South Carolina Junior Academy of Science, is a reviewer for journal submissions, organizes science camps for local school children in the Sumter area and presents at various venues.

In addition to several awards and accolades over the years, Dr. Kiernan was the 2023 South Carolina Academy of Science undergraduate faculty of the year and more recently awarded by the Sumter Item as the Best of Sumter 2025 in the category of College Professors.