Daniel Nocera is at the forefront of research on renewable energy at the molecular level, focusing on mechanisms of energy conversion involving the water molecule. In 2005, Nocera was awarded the Italgas Prize, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Nocera has received the American Institute of Chemists Award, and was appointed a Presidential Young Investigator and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

He serves on the Editorial Boards of Accounts of Chemical Research, Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Comments in Inorganic Chemistry. He was the inaugural Editor of Inorganic Chemistry Communications.

Nocera received his B.S. in 1979 from Rutgers University, and his Ph.D. from CalTech in 1984. He joined MIT in 1997.