John attended school at the Christian Brothers College, Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
[4] He obtained a master's degree (1971–1974) in area studies at the University of London.
He served as the vice president of SIAM United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Section from 1998 to 1999.
[7] He also served as the editor for Combustion Theory and Modelling and SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics.
John Dold has made significant contributions in theoretical combustion science, particularly in areas related to partially premixed combustion, fire, ignition, detonations and also in the field of fluid mechanics and wate waves.