John S. Cundiff received his PhD in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1972. His academic career began at the University of Georgia where his early research was on tobacco transplant mechanization, thus beginning his interest in the use of hydraulics on mobile machines. He joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 1980 and in 1987 began teaching an undergraduate engineering course, "Fluid Power Systems and Circuits". The 1st edition of this textbook, published in 2002, evolved out of 15 years teaching this course.
Dr. Cundiff retired in 2010, thus concluding a 38-year academic career. His early retirement years were spent finishing two research projects. In 2016, after obtaining an agreement from Dr. Mike Kocher to be co-author (and thus do most of the work), he undertook this 2nd edition project.
Dr. Cundiff is married to Karen, and together they have four children, two from her first marriage and two from his. Together, they have seven grandchildren.
Michael F. Kocher received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1979 and 1983, respectively. Mike received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1986. His academic career began with the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas with a research and teaching appointment focusing in power and machinery. In 1990, Mike joined the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a 60% teaching and 40% research appointment. During his first year at UNL, Mike began teaching the "Power Systems Design" course with about three-fourths of the course devoted to fluid power hydraulics. In 2002 Mike was excited to adopt the 1st edition of this textbook for the course as it had a focus on design, extending beyond the basic analysis of so many other textbooks.
Dr. Kocher is married to Jodi, and they have four wonderful children and a wonderful daughter-in-law. Mike and Jodi are both licensed professional engineers.
