Daniel J. Bradley

Daniel Joseph Bradley is a Canadian-American university administrator, professor, chemist, and petroleum engineer. Since July 2008, he has served as president of Indiana State University. Before that, he served as president of Fairmont State University, beginning in February 2001. He was previously a professor at Montana Tech of the University of Montana where he held several ranking positions as department head, dean, and vice-chancellor.

Bradley's scientific research has focused on thermodynamics and the properties of electrolytes as well as other aqueous solutions. In 1979, he published a paper with Kenneth Pitzer describing the relative permittivity of water at specified ranges of temperature and pressure. It contained what has come to be known as the Bradley-Pitzer equation which has been frequently used by scientists to calculate the coefficients in the Debye–Hückel equation.

Biography

Early life Bradley was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada. When he was seven years old, his family moved to California. After serving in the United States Army, Bradley entered Michigan State University. In 1973, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Physical Chemistry. It was from here that he and Kenneth Pitzer published the article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry entitled "Thermodynamics of electrolytes 12. Dielectric properties of water and Debye-Hueckel parameters to 350.degree.C and 1 kbar". This article published in 1979 contained what later came to be known as the Tait-Bradley-Pitzer or simply Bradley-Pitzer equation. The equation is "frequently used for the calculation of the Debye–Hückel slopes." It is a simple "but effective description of the dielectric constant dependence on the pressure and temperature" of water. It was derived by modifying the Tait equation, which was originally proposed by Peter Guthrie Tait to describe the relationship between the volume and the temperature and pressure of water. However, Bradley and Pitzer formulated an equation of the same form as Tait's that instead described the relationship between the relative permittivity (previously known as the dielectric constant) and the temperature and pressure of water.

Since 1994, he has also served on the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission. On the ABET board, he represented the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Bradley was named a Fellow of ABET in 2010.

Fairmont State University In February 2001, Bradley was appointed the president of Fairmont State University. During his tenure, he also served as chair of the ABET Board of Directors' Finance Committee. In May 2006, he was appointed treasurer of ABET. after serving for eight years. Bradley became the 11th person to serve in the position He began his duties in July and was officially installed as president of the ISU in November at a formal ceremony in Hulman Center.

In 2009, although former governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels had announced a decrease to the state's higher education budget, Bradley announced a "five-year plan that calls for growing [Indiana State’s] enrollment by 1,500 students, increasing graduation rates and even becoming more involved in the community." The plan called for an increase in the diversity of the university's revenue streams, as well as increasing enrollment, and tackling low retention and graduation rates. In 2010, Bradley was among the seventy-one college administrators to sign "a pledge to improve student learning." They were part of the Presidents' Alliance for Excellence in Student Learning and Accountability. In 2012, Bradley announced the new Sycamore Graduation Guarantee, which is intended to encourage on-time graduation with a guarantee that the university will pay a student's tuition for any time beyond the four years needed to graduate. In return, Indiana State students were required to sign a pledge to maintain a minimum of 32 credits per year, declare a major and meet regularly with advisers. In 2011, oil was discovered in Terre Haute. Two years later, Bradley celebrated a successful drilling effort on the university property by presenting jars full of crude oil to the school's Board of Trustees. In the first year of extraction, oil production had generated about $350,000 in revenue for the university.

By 2015 of Bradley's tenure, the university's enrollment rose to a record high of 13,584 students, remaining steady at 13,565 by 2016, and again reaching a record level of 13,771 in 2017, a significant increase from 10,500 students at the beginning of his term. ISU has also experienced gains in its four-year graduation rate. As recently as March 2017, Bradley argued against decreases in funding as proposed in the 2018–19 state budget by the Indiana General Assembly and advocated for a $4.7 million increase to improve student outcome. In June 2017, the $2.3 million per year increase was approved by the school's board of trustees as a line-item appropriation in the state budget. Bradley has overseen several university construction and renovation projects totaling more than $300 million,

In April 2017, Bradley announced he would be stepping down as president of the university. Although his contract was not due to expire until June 2019, he said the planned retirement was due to a desire to spend more time with his family and pursue other interests.

Personal life Bradley is married to Cheri Bradley. Together they have three sons and several grandchildren. They sometimes vacation in Montana where they owned a home.

Selected journals