After graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a two-year career as a Design Engineer at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, Dr. Dan Metz returned to school to continue his education. He began working in the emerging fields of vehicle dynamics and accident reconstruction when those fields were themselves emerging while a Ph.D. student at Cornell University in the late 1960’s. During that period, Dr. Metz collaborated with colleagues at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory on some of the earliest work involving vehicle dynamics and computer simulation. While at Cornell, he completed a doctoral thesis in the area of three-dimensional automobile collision occupant dynamics.

Upon the granting of his doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell, Dr. Metz accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Department of General Engineering. While at Illinois, he quickly advanced through the ranks of Assistant Professor, tenured Associate Professor, and then Full Professor. During his 29-year academic career, Dr. Metz taught classes in vehicle dynamics, systems and control, computer graphics and engineering design, advising over 70 sponsored senior-level engineering projects and numerous graduate students.

Upon arriving at the University of Illinois in 1970, Dr. Metz simultaneously began consulting in the areas of accident reconstruction and vehicle dynamics, and founded Metz Engineering, later to be called Metz Engineering and Racing (MER). As the field of accident reconstruction advanced, he published dozens of refereed scientific research papers (see List of Publications) and did consulting work for various insurance companies, racing and other professional organizations and vehicle manufacturers. For many years, Dr. Metz also taught a three-day vehicle dynamics seminar for the Society of Automotive Engineers at the annual SAE convention and at numerous individual company sites within the United States, Canada and Western Europe. He continues to teach classes in these areas for various companies and software manufacturers.

Today, MER boasts of Clients around the World. The vast majority of litigation-related accident reconstruction work done by MER is in the United States, and is defense-related (85–90%). The Company only pursues work in the areas of (1) accident reconstruction and vehicle dynamics, and (2) circuit, oval track, drag and land speed racing,  specializing in just these two areas in an in-depth way seldom duplicated elsewhere. In accident reconstruction, Dr. Metz has worked for numerous insurance companies, attorneys, governmental bodies and other agencies. In racing, MER worked with essentially every racing sanctioning body, numerous tracks and many, many racing teams.