Dr. Daniel L. Geiger has grown orchids since about 2004, soon specializing in the overlooked genus Oberonia. He has served on and chaired the AOS Research Committee and held occasional board appointments with local orchid societies. He has given talks on orchids locally as well as internationally (e.g., Australia, UK, Singapore), and visited herbaria around the globe (AMES, B, BM, CANB, E, F, K, L, MICH, MO, NSW, P, SEL, SOG, SING, US, W, WU, Z, ZU). He served as guest editor for the journal Rheedea and has authored 12 scientific papers on the genus, plus a number of more popular accounts. He currently writes the global monograph of Oberonia, estimated publication in 2027.

Additionally, Geiger is a globally recognized authority on abalone and minute marine snails (little slit shells). Equally recognized is his expertise in Scanning Electron Microscopy as well as micro- and macro-photography. He has (co-)authored five books and about 80 scientific articles and has named over 100 new species of snails, crabs, fish, and orchids. Ten species, including one orchid, and one genus are named after him. He has held various editorial positions and is an appointed member of the IUCN Mollusk Specialist Group.

Geiger obtained his first degree (Diplom Biologie I) from the University of Basel, Switzerland. His Ph.D. thesis from the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, received the 2000 Annual Award from the Malacological Society of London. After a postdoc in molecular systematics at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and teaching appointments at USC, worked at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 2005-2024, where he is now Curator Emeritus of Malacology. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, woodturning, photography, and playing baroque viola d’amore (honorary member of the International Viola d’amore Society, e.V.), and teaches yoga (RYT200 & yin).