Professor Alexander joined UNL in 1975 as an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. While spending 18 years in the Mechanical Engineering Department he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1979 and became Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1986. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department in 1993 as a full Professor. He has developed extensive research and laboratory capabilities in aerosol sizing and performing electromagnetic calculations in linear and nonlinear laser interactions with aerosols. He has developed laser induced breakdown spectroscopy techniques for remotely detecting heavy metals for remote environmental sampling. His most recent work involves the femtosecond machining and the production of nanometer sized particles from femtosecond laser interaction with materials. He has received outstanding teaching awards and research awards. He has helped establish a student organization of the Optical Society of America and is the faculty advisor.

• Ph.D., Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 1976
  
• M.Sc., Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 1973
  
• B.Sc., Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 1971

• Electromagnetic interactions and theoretical calculations
  
• Femtosecond ultra short pulse propagation and generation of nanostructures
  
• Thermal wave echo imaging
  
• Aerosols

• Femtosecond Laser Machining and Generation of Nanostructures
  
• Femtosecond Laser Pulse Propagation in Water and Aerosols
  
• Femtosecond Laser Nanomachiniry of Aerogels and Silicon Waters
  
• Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of DNA
  
• Environmental Monitoring Sensors and Detection
  
• Strengthening Graduate Education in Science and Engineering through Systemic Involvement in Research and Outreach Activities (NSF/EPSCoR).

• D.W. Doerr and D.R. Alexander, "Sub-micron Patterning of Aluminum Films by Laser Ablation," SPIE, Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology V, Vol. 3874, Santa Clara, CA, September 20-22, 1999.
• D. R. Alexander and M. L. Rohlfs, "Propagation of Ultra-Short Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Aerosols," IGARSS 2000, Honolulu, HI, July 22-28, 2000.
• D. R. Alexander, D. Doerr, B. Mihulka, "Femtosecond Laser Nano-Machining and the Production of Nano-Scale Particles," LIBS 2000 Conference, Pisa, Italy, October 2000.
• D. R. Alexander, "Femtosecond Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy," International Conference on Lasers 2000, Albuquerque, NM, December 4-8, 2000.
• V. Curicuta, D. E. Poulain, D. R. Alexander, R. J. DeAngelis, S. Gaser, and E. Kolawa, "Furnace and Laser Methods of Bonding Metals to Ceramics: Phenomenological Investigation,'' Materials Science & Engineering B, B68, 186-195, 2000.
• V. Curicuta, D. R. Alexander, Y. Liu, B. W. Robertson, and D. E. Poulain, "Bonding of Metals to Ceramics: Interface Investigation,'' Materials Science & Engineering B, B68, 196-203, 2000.
• D. R. Alexander, "Femtosecond Libs and Second Harmonic Generation Techniques for Detection of Chemical and Biological Agents," Merrill Advanced Studies Center, Lawrence, KS, June 12-14, 2002.
• D. R. Alexander, "Exotic Libs-Femtosecond Domain," Laser Induced Plasma Spectroscopy and Applications, Technical Digest; sponsored by the Optical Society of America, Orlando, FL, 164-165, September 24, 2002.
• M. L. Rohlfs and D. R. Alexander, "Transient Plane Wave Scattering by a Dielectric Sphere,'' accepted by Journal of Optical Society of America, April, 2003.
• D. E. Poulain, D. R. Alexander, J. K. Krause, and A. Azizinamini, "Active Thermal Sensing of Corroded Rebar in Concrete,'' submitted to Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 2003.
• D. W. Doerr, B. W. Mihulka and D. R. Alexander, "Aluminum Film Ablation: Comparison of Resolution and Quality Using Laser Pulses from Femtosecond to Nanosecond Duration," Journal of Applied Physics, April 16, 2003.