Richard C. Dorf is a Professor Emeritus of Management and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis

University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...

. He received his Ph.D. from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. Dorf is a Life Fellow

IEEE Fellow

An IEEE member is elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellow for "unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest"...

 of the IEEE for contributions to engineering education and control theory, and is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education

American Society for Engineering Education

The American Society for Engineering Education is a non-profit member association, founded in 1893, dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and engineering technology education....

.

Professor Dorf researches and teaches control system

Control system

A control system is a device, or set of devices to manage, command, direct or regulate the behavior of other devices or system.There are two common classes of control systems, with many variations and combinations: logic or sequential controls, and feedback or linear controls...

s, robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

, energy systems, technology management, entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...

, innovation management

Innovation management

Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in innovation. It can be used to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to...

, non-profit management, new venture management, venture capital management, and technology policy

Technology policy

The study of technology policy or engineering and policy is taught at multiple universities.Classic political science teaches technology as a black box. Similarly economics treats technology as a residual to explain otherwise inexplicable growth. The creation of the U.S...

. He is also a consultant in engineering business development, and teaches classes in the area as well.

Dorf is a prolific author and editor. He has authored 30 books, including several standard handbooks and textbooks of engineering. His latest book is called Technology Ventures: From Ideas to Enterprise and is co-authored with Professor Thomas Byers of Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

; the textbook is the first to thoroughly examine a global phenomenon known as "technology entrepreneurship".