David Dorrell is a native of the UK. He obtained his PhD from The University of Cambridge in 1993 and has had lecturing positions with The Robert Gordon University and The University of Reading. He was also an R&D Engineer with Newage International, UK. From 1999 to 2008, he was with The University of Glasgow as the Electrical Machine Design Manager in the SPEED Lab, then as a Senior Lecturer. In 2008, he moved to The University of Technology Sydney in Australia as a Senior Lecturer and was quickly promoted to Associate Professor. In 2015, he took up a post as Professor of Electrical Machines with UKZN. In 2016, he became the Director of the UKZN EPPEI Specialization Centre in HVDC and FACTS on the Westville campus, which is funded by Eskom. Students, particularly from Eskom, are welcome to get in contact about studying at the Centre.

He has over 100 journal papers, the vast majority being in IEEE Transactions, and over 250 conference papers in major international conferences, with an H-factor of 35 on Scopus (March 2018). He was awarded an IEE Premium for his PhD work and has won three IEEE IAS Machines Committee prizes. He has supervised many PhD, Masters and Bachelors student projects, carried out consultancy with several international companies and has visited several universities as a visiting scholar. He has carried out editorial work for several IEEE Transactions. While his primary research is electrical machines he also works in the area of renewable energy, particularly wave energy, and smart grids.

He has a B2 NRF rating as an internationally acclaimed researcher.