Late on a stormy night (Friday the 13th it was!) a shrill cry pierced the darkness and Daniel Smalley was born. Young Daniel was a farmhand by day and an intrepid experimenter by night. He experimented a great deal with holography, and for this reason was led to attend MIT earned four degrees while creating the world's first low-cost holographic video monitor. Now as an associate BYU professor and NSF CAREER award winner, he is making the 3D displays of science fiction a reality using waveguide-based modulators and optical tractor beam technologies.