Dr. Daniel C. Peterson is a native of southern California.  He received a bachelor's degree in Greek and philosophy from BYU and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Peterson currently teaches at BYU, where he is an associate professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic and was just released as a member of the Jerusalem Academic Coordinating Committee, which oversees academic programs at BYU's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.  He is the managing editor of the new Islamic Translation Series, which publishes dual-language editions of classical works of medieval Arabic and Persian philosophy, and the director of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART), which has produced a computer-digitized version of the Dead Sea Scrolls and is now commencing similar projects involving ancient Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Egyptian manuscripts.

Dr. Peterson served in the Switzerland Zürich Mission, and, for approximately eight years, on the Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  At the present time, he is a member of a BYU campus bishopric.

He is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), and edits the FARMS Review of Books.

Dr. Peterson is married to the former Deborah Stephens, of Lakewood, Colorado, and they are the parents of three boys.

Critics have an interesting view of Dr. Peterson.  To see what they think of him, click here.