With Anna Leahy, Doug Dechowwrites the blog Lofty Ambitions. They publish together in the areas of aviation and spaceflight, science of the twentieth century and beyond, and writing as a couple. Their articles have appeared in Air & Space Magazine (August 2011), the journal Curator, and the book Bombs Away! Their photos of and commentary about the end of the space shuttle program were featured at BBC Online. They are chronicling their two years as space nerds in the book Generation Space.

Doug is the co-author of SQUEAK: A Quick Trip to Objectland.

Currently, Doug is the Science Librarian at Leatherby Libraries, Chapman University, where he teaches bibliographic information sessions in the sciences and business, oversees collection development for the sciences, provides reference support for student and faculty research, and assists with special university programs such as the recent Freedom Without Walls commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Einstein's Universe featuring physicist Brian Foster and violinist Jack Lieback. He works with the archivist to develop and maintain a collection of NASA artifacts and space exploration and aviation research materials.

Doug coordinates the development of geographic information systems (GIS) services for the Leatherby Libraries' Map and Geographic Information Center (MAGIC). The university awarded him a Personalized Education Teaching Grant for research in virtual worlds and immersive education. He was awarded a fellowship by THATCamp Victoria to attend in 2011 and is active in building the digital humanities at Chapman University. He presents and publishes research in the areas of librarianship, computer science, and program development.

Doug was awarded a scholarship to the Norman Mailer Writers Colony to attend a week-long fiction workshop in 2010 and is working on a novel set during the Manhattan Project.

Previously, Doug worked as a Research Computer Scientist for Tech-X Corporation, where he was based at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He has worked as an Abstractor/Indexer at the NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), where he helped maintain the space administration's online database RECON.

Doug earned his MSLIS from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, his PhD in computer science from Oregon State University, and his MS in math from Ohio University. He is an alum of Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, that ranks in the top 3% nationally for proportion of graduates who go on to earn PhDs.