Professor Robert Edelman is a professor of Russian history and the history of sport at the University of California, San Diego, where he has been teaching since 1972, when he received his doctorate from Columbia University. He has also taught at UCLA.
He was a former sports-writer and radio announcer. He has consulted on documentaries for HBO, PBS, ESPN, and CBS at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games. He lives in Solana Beach with three children, two dogs and one wife.
Professor Edelman received the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Grant in 2007-2008.