David L. Hoof (born 2 December 1945 in Washington, DC) is an American fiction novelist. Hoof is a graduate of Deerfield Academy, where he was a successful swimmer, serving as his team's captain one year and earning All American honors three years. He took his bachelor's degree in Chemistry at Cornell University as a Meinig National Scholar. Undertaking graduate and post-graduate studies, Hoof matriculated at Purdue University, earning his doctorate. His National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship was completed at Georgetown University. Following a stint as a teacher at Montgomery College, Hoof was employed by the United States Department of Energy, where he was part of the nuclear reactor fuel reprocessing program.