David Garrison began his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned his B.S. in Physics in 1997.  During his course of study, he minored in Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Science and completed a concentration in Political Science.  He then moved on to The Pennsylvania State University where he completed a Ph.D. in Physics in 2002.  After which, he accepted a position as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Houston – Clear Lake. 

After serving as a visiting faculty member for one year, he was promoted to tenure-track.  During his time in academia, Dr. Garrison earned several awards from organizations including NASA, the Institute for Space Systems Operations, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Council of Graduate Schools, the History Makers Project and the Texas Educational Grid Project in addition to several internal grants and scholarships. 

During his time on the faculty of UHCL, Dr. Garrison served as Chair of the Physical Science and Physics Programs and successfully developed and oversaw the approval of a revised Bachelors Degree in Physical Science, a Bachelors Degree in Physics, an Engineering Physics sub-plan, a Computational Physics sub-plan, a Masters Degree in Physics, a Professional Masters of Physics sub-plan in Technical Management and a Collaborative Ph.D. Program in Physics.  He also served as President of the UHCL Faculty Senate twice, Director of Graduate Programs and Interim Associate Dean for Science and Engineering.  His research in computational and theoretical physics consists of work in Numerical Relativity and Cosmology.