After working as a research scientist at the Weapons Research Establishment for the Commonwealth of Australia, as a systems analyst for the Australian Department of Defence, and as the Assistant Director-General for the Australian telecommunications authority, Donald Fenna was made a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He has over 60 publications in learned journals and books covering mathematics, management, computing, and medicine, including Elsevier's Encyclopedic Dictionary of Measures.