Dr. Jeffrey W. Alexander is a professor of Asian History at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He teaches the history of Japan and China, as well as World History, and he writes about the history of Japanese business, industry, and technology.

Dr. Alexander received his doctorate from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, in 2005. His research focuses on Japan's major industrial, technological, and commercial transformations since the mid-nineteenth century. He translates and uses Japanese source material to illustrate such themes as how state investment in industry both before and during the Second World War laid the foundations for Japan's rapid postwar success in consumer product manufacturing.

Dr. Alexander has given invited lectures at Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Waterloo. His current book project focuses upon the history of Japan's beer brewing industry, and he has also published original research on Japan's optical industry.