With architecture as a driving application, her research in computer graphics has included work on high-dynamic-range imaging, image-based modeling and rendering, and billboarding.
She is the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Computer Science at Yale University,[1] and the founder and Chief Scientist of 3D sketching software company Mental Canvas.
[4] She was a tenured professor of computer science and engineering and architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to Yale in 2002.
[1] Dorsey is the co-author of the book Digital Modeling of Material Appearance (with Holly Rushmeier and François Sillion, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008).
[3] In 2018 she was a winner of the Microsoft Female Founders Competition, providing venture capital to fund her company Mental Canvas.