A pioneer in both exploration and education, Buettner has traveled the world to solve some of science's biggest questions. Currently, he is leading the Blues Zones Quests, four yearly expeditions that explore the world's longest-lived regions to distill a cross-cultural longevity formula. He's also doing cross-cultural research on happiness. With this research he's created one of the nation's premier adventure learning programs and shared his findings with the public through real time online expeditions. Buettner's book on longevity is THE BLUE ZONE: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest, published by National Geographic Books in March 2008.

The article Buettner wrote for National Geographic Magazine in November 2005, "Secrets of Living Longer", was the third highest selling issue in the magazine's history and made Buettner a National Magazine Award finalist.

Buettner has created one of the nation's premier adventure learning programs. His Quest Network online expeditions opened a new chapter in the book of exploration. These Quests enable millions of online explorers to direct a team of experts as they unravel archaeological - and now longevity-related - mysteries. The Washington Post called his Quests "the most successful experiment in interactive education to date."

In 1995, seeking a platform to use the Web and take audiences along on journeys of discovery, Buettner founded Earthtreks Inc. The company's first project, MayaQuest, enabled an online audience to solve the mystery of the ancient Maya civilization collapse. Some 1.3 million people, including 30,000 classrooms, participated in the Quest.

Buettner sold Earthtreks Inc. to Classroom Connect, (now owned by Harcourt Brace) in 1997, where he oversaw eight more interactive Quests. Along with his team of experts, he revisited the Maya civilization collapse, followed in Marco Polo's footsteps and investigated the fall of the Anasazi in North America.

Buettner has set three Guinness World Records in long-distance cycling. Americastrek (1986-87) took a team of four Americans on a 15,500-mile ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. On Sovietrek (1990), two Russians, Buettner, and his brother biked 12,888 miles around the world. Buettner's ensuing book, Sovietrek, won a Minnesota Book Award.

Africatrek, a multiracial, trans-Africa expedition, took place a year later. Buettner recruited a four-member team of black and white cyclists to highlight the power of racial cooperation and setting goals. Their 12,172-mile ride across Africa took them across the Sahara, through equatorial Congo, and to the continent's southern tip. In conjunction with the expedition, Buettner initiated a program that sent 1,000 bicycles to Africa and an education program that reached over one million students.

Buettner co-produced an Africatrek segment on National Geographic and an Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary. The "Africatrek Trail" CD-ROM, allowing players to relive the expedition, had sales of more than $2 million. Buettner's book, Africatrek, won the Scientific American's "Young Reader Award."

His accomplishments led to television appearances and profiles in dozens of publications, among them the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventure, Time, Men's Health, Pravda, and People magazine. As a writer and photographer, Dan's work has appeared in National Geographic World, Life, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Popular Mechanics, and the Chicago Tribune.

Buettner's expeditions have garnered the support of many sponsors, including Target Stores, 3M, Apple Computer, Compaq Computers, Lifetouch Portraits, Sun Microsystems, Nike, and Rolex. He was the spokesman for Target Stores' Camp Target, a line of outdoor products.

In the past 10 years, Buettner has delivered more than 500 keynote speeches in diverse venues, ranging from the National Association of Social Studies to Apple Computers, from Stanford University to Target Stores. In 2000, he delivered the keynote address, along with Intel CEO, Craig Barrett, to 7,000 teachers at the National Education Computing Conference. The National Association of Campus Activities Directors inducted Dan into its "Hall of Fame" for his 200 college appearances.

Buettner serves on the Board of Directors for The Loft, a literary organization, and The British Virgin Islands Parks' National Trust. Buettner also is a member of the Explorers Club and was honored in 2006 with Outward Bound's Compass Award for community service. Born in 1960, Buettner graduated cum laude from the University of St. Thomas in 1983.