Embry-Riddle offers its students a wide array of more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in aviation, aerospace, business, engineering, safety, security and intelligence, transportation, and related high-tech fields.
In just the last few years, the University launched its first Ph.D. degree programs, in Aerospace Engineering, Aviation, Engineering Physics, Human Factors, and Mechanical Engineering. The Aviation doctorate is the first of its kind in the nation. The four other doctoral degrees are the pinnacle of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in those same subjects. Embry-Riddle’s Aerospace Engineering program is the largest of its kind in the nation.
These new Ph.D. programs expand the applied research opportunities in which Embry-Riddle faculty and students assist the aviation/aerospace industry, government agencies, and others in meeting real-world challenges. Frequent research partners include the FAA, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Air Force.
The Daytona Beach and Prescott campuses host championship athletic teams that are winners both in sports and in the classroom.
Just completed, the newest building on campus houses the College of Arts & Sciences, including an observatory with the largest university-owned research telescope in Florida. The Jim W. Henderson Administration & Welcome Center and the James Hagedorn Aviation Complex are also new. Next in line for construction are a new Student Union and a residence hall.
With active faculty advisement, student teams from the Daytona Beach Campus regularly take top honors in competitions hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. Aeronautical Science students excel in annual flight competitions such as the women’s Air Race Classic and the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s SAFECON event.
Unlike many other developments at the end of the Industrial Revolution, aviation required a special education – learning how to fly, learning about safety and weather, and learning about engines – from skilled maintenance to the outer limits of performance.
The need for trained pilots and mechanics quickly led to the establishment of a new type of school, one focused totally on aviation. In the beginning, these organizations were often a combination of airplane dealership, airmail service, flight training center, and mechanic school. The original Embry-Riddle operations fit that mold precisely.
On Dec. 17, 1925, exactly 22 years after the historic flight of the Wright Flyer, barnstormer John Paul Riddle and entrepreneur T. Higbee Embry founded the Embry-Riddle Company at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio. The following spring the company opened the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation, coinciding with the implementation of the Air Commerce Act of 1926, which required, for the first time, the certification and medical examination of pilots.
Within three years the school had become a subsidiary of AVCO, the parent of American Airlines. Embry-Riddle remained dormant during most of the 1930s, mirroring the casualties of the Great Depression, and the Lunken Airport operation was phased out. By the end of the decade, however, World War II erupted in Europe and the demand for skilled aviators and mechanics grew significantly. Embry-Riddle’s second life was about to begin.
In South Florida, Embry-Riddle opened several flight-training centers and quickly became the world’s largest aviation school. Allied nations sent thousands of fledgling airmen to the Embry-Riddle centers at Carlstrom, Dorr, and Chapman airfields to become pilots, mechanics, and aviation technicians. Some 25,000 men were trained by Embry-Riddle during the war years.
After the war, under the leadership of John and Isabel McKay, Embry-Riddle expanded its international outreach while strengthening its academic programs.
With Jack R. Hunt as president, in 1965 Embry-Riddle consolidated its flight, ground school, and technical training programs in one location by moving northward to Daytona Beach, Florida. This move, which proved to be a moment of singular importance, was made possible by Daytona Beach civic leaders who donated time, money, and the use of personal vehicles. The relocation signaled the rebirth of Embry-Riddle and the start of its odyssey to world-class status in aviation higher education.
In 1968, Embry-Riddle was accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award degrees at the associate, bachelor, and master levels, and in 1970 changed its name from “Institute” to “University.” Also in 1970, centers were established at U.S. military aviation bases to serve the educational needs of active-duty military personnel.
In 1978, under President Hunt’s leadership, Embry-Riddle opened a western campus in Prescott, Arizona, on the 511-acre site of a former college. With superb flying weather and expansive grounds, the Prescott campus has been an outstanding companion to the University’s eastern campus in Daytona Beach.
Continuing Hunt’s legacy was Lt. Gen. Kenneth L. Tallman, president of Embry-Riddle for five years. He came to the University after a distinguished 35-year military career that included service as superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Under Tallman’s leadership, a school of graduate studies and the electrical engineering degree program were introduced. He led the University into research with the addition of the engineering physics degree program. He also developed stronger ties between Embry-Riddle and the aviation/aerospace industry.
Dr. Steven M. Sliwa led the University from 1991 through 1998. Sliwa, the University’s third president, is best known for creating an entrepreneurial environment and for developing strategic partnerships with industry. These partnerships included a joint venture with FlightSafety International; a partnership with Cessna Aircraft Company; a technology alliance with IBM; and an exclusive educational partnership with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He also spearheaded a $100+ million capital expansion program, which included an $11.5 million congressional line-item appropriation. In addition, new academic and research programs were created at his direction to respond to structural changes in the industry while increasing market share in the University’s core programs.
Embry-Riddle’s fourth president, Dr. George H. Ebbs, led the University from 1998 through 2005. During his tenure the annual college guide produced by U.S. News & World Report consistently ranked Embry-Riddle’s Aerospace Engineering program No. 1 in the nation among schools without doctoral programs, a ranking the University has achieved every year since 2001. Embry-Riddle’s program in Aerospace Engineering is the largest in the nation, as are its programs in Aeronautical Science and Engineering Physics.
Under the leadership of Dr. Ebbs, a new graduate degree program in safety science was introduced, as well as new undergraduate degree programs in Computer Science, Global Security and Intelligence Studies, Mechanical Engineering, Software Engineering, and Space Physics. In addition, major construction was initiated at the Daytona Beach and Prescott residential campuses.
Dr. Ebbs presided over three military contracts worth a total of more than $57 million. Under those contracts Embry-Riddle provides aviation-related degree programs to the U.S. military in Europe; trained Air Force, Air National Guard, and international flight safety officers at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M.; and trained Air Force pilots at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Dr. John P. Johnson served the Universtiy as the fifth President. He previously served as Embry-Riddle’s Interim President and as Provost and Chief Academic Officer. Before joining Embry-Riddle, he was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Texas A&M University, Texarkana, and served as Dean at the Medical University of South Carolina and at Northern Kentucky University.
Under Dr. Johnson’s leadership Embry-Riddle has expanded its research activity; has launched Ph.D. degree programs, in Aerospace Engineering, Aviation, Aviation Business Administration, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Engineering Physics, Human Factors, and in Mechanical Engineering; and is developing a global strategy to take its aviation and aerospace expertise overseas. Working with the FAA and industry leaders, Dr. Johnson has positioned the University as one of the nation’s leaders in the development of next-generation air traffic management technology.
Dr. John R. Watret was named Interim President of Embry-Riddle in 2015, after serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
As Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Watret provided leadership for all operational aspects of the Daytona Beach, Prescott, and Worldwide campuses, as well as Information Technology, Institutional Research, Strategic Planning and Analysis, and the Singapore Campus.
Watret was named Chancellor of the Worldwide Campus in 2010. As Chancellor, he oversaw all academic and operational functions of the campus, which is composed of more than 150 classroom locations in the United States and internationally, and provides services for more than 23,000 students annually through both traditional and online instruction.
Watret joined Embry-Riddle in 1989 and over the years has held several management and faculty positions at the Daytona Beach campus, including associate provost, associate chancellor, associate dean of academics, and full professor of mathematics. In the early 1990s, he took a brief leave of absence to serve as head of the department of mathematics for Texas A&M’s branch campus in northern Japan. In 2006, Watret became the associate vice president and chief academic officer for the Worldwide Campus.
During his tenure as a faculty member in the mathematics department, Watret was known as a dedicated and skilled instructor and was recognized by his peers with Embry-Riddle’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 1996. He has authored several publications and participated as a lead faculty member, developing the Integrated Curriculum in Engineering (ICE) program through a grant from the Boeing Company.
Watret continues to be active both nationally and internationally in the aviation industry and serves as a board member for the UF Online Campus as appointed by the Florida Board of Governors. He has also served as a member of an onsite re-affirmation visiting team for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Additionally, Watret serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Asia, Ltd. in Singapore and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS).