Thomas Franklin Daniel is an American botanist, and teacher. He is a specialist of the botanical family Acanthaceae. In 1975 he obtained his undergraduate from Duke University. In 1980, he obtained his doctorate at the University of Michigan. In 1981, he was assistant professor. Between 1981 and 1985 he was an assistant curator of the Arizona State University Herbarium.
Since 1986, Daniel belongs to the California Academy of Sciences where he is Curator of Botany, Emeritus. In 1987 he was a conservation assistant. From 1988 to 1991: assistant curator. In 2009, he was president of the Botany Department, a position he also held between 1988 and 1990 and between 1994 and 1996. Since 1998 he has been a research professor at San Francisco State University. He is also a researcher at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.