Dr. Foster holds the John Denis McGarry, Ph.D. Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic Research and is Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at U.T. Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. He did his residency in Internal Medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital and was elected Chief Resident. He did a year of fellowship with Dr. Marvin Siperstein at Southwestern before moving to the NIH where he was a research fellow under Dr. DeWitt Stetten, Jr. He returned to the U.T. faculty following his tenure at the NIH. He was elected Chairman of Internal Medicine in 1988, serving for sixteen years.

Dr. Foster is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was President of the Association of Professors of Medicine, the organization of the Chairs of Medicine in the American medical schools. He also was President of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, the organization of members of The National Academy living in Texas.

He served the National Institutes of Health for many years where he was Chair of the Metabolism Study Section, was a member of the NIDDK Advisory Council, the National Diabetes Advisory Council, and served two five-year terms on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Clinical Center. He also served on several NIH search committees.

Dr. Foster’s research focused for many years on the intermediary metabolism of glucose and lipids. With his colleague, Dr. J. Denis McGarry, he discovered the malonyl CoA regulatory system for fatty acid oxidation, for which he received the Banting Medal for outstanding research from the American Diabetes Association. Dr. McGarry received the Banting Medal subsequently. He received the Distinguished Chair of Medicine Award from the Association of Professors of Medicine, the Eric G. Neilson Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Specialty Professors, the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award, the Great Teacher Award from the National Institutes of Health, the J. Denis McGarry Award for Scientific Community Excellence and the Daniel W. Martin Sciences Award.

Dr. Foster was Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation from 1972-1977 and was Editor of Diabetes from 1978-1983. He was Co-Editor with Dr. Jean D. Wilson of three volumes of the Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. He has written multiple chapters in other textbooks. He currently is on the Editorial Board of the Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha and a Consulting Editor of Medicine.

He is the Headmaster of the Colleges at Southwestern. He was a Trustee of the Dallas Independent School District during the desegregation case. He was host of “Daniel Foster, M.D.”, a national weekly program on the Public Broadcasting system for four thirteen-week seasons. He is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas.