Leadership

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, dating to 1925, is an independent, nonsectarian, not-for-profit, coeducational university serving more than 31,000 students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona, at more than 130 Worldwide campuses and through online programs.

Embry-Riddle leads the world in aviation and aerospace higher education, and is rapidly accelerating its research enterprise across areas ranging from unmanned and autonomous systems and robotics, to green aviation, cyber security, space and atmospheric physics, aviation business management, astronomy and astrophysics, commercial space operations, aerospace materials, and more.

Reporting directly to the Board of Trustees, Embry-Riddle is led by President P. Barry Butler.

Embry-Riddle is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctorate levels.

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Related Resources

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When Lt. Col. Rob Moyer joined the U.S. Army after college, he wanted to “become a leader, travel the world and be part of something greater” than himself.

New Equipment Enhances Research on Stars

On the top floor of the College of Arts & Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus, astronomy students and professors analyze the atmospheres of stars as seen through the largest university-based telescope in Florida – the 1-meter Ritchey-Chrétien reflecting telescope in the Physical Sciences Department’s Observatory.

Virtual Reality Powers Real Learning

Imagine going through the wreckage of an airliner that has broken apart and burned, looking for clues to determine what caused the accident. Only highly trained investigators ever have a chance to take part in such scenarios. Yet, thanks to the rapidly developing technology of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide campus students can examine crashed aircraft in a simulated environment, searching for clues with their computers, tablets, smartphones or AR goggles.

Scott Shappell Improves Safety by Factoring in the Human Element

While visiting Galveston, Texas this year for a conference, Scott Shappell reflected on how his life has changed since he last was in the city 27 years ago as a doctoral student.

Persistence Pays Off: Life-Saving Jet Technology Earns Top Aviation Prize

As a boy growing up in Iceland, Snorri Gudmundsson put a lot of thought into how airplanes could fly. During many trips to a nearby airport in Reykjavik with his father, he asked, “How can something made of metal become airborne? It’s heavy. How can it lift off?” If he wanted to understand, Gudmundsson’s father told him, he needed to read a lot and do mathematics.

Drones Pose Increasing Risks to Aircraft, Study Confirms

In February 2018, a YouTube video revealed a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) taking off from a parking lot and climbing more than 1,000 feet as a passenger jet came dangerously close to the drone on approach to McCarran Airport. The irresponsible drone operator then flew upside down to get a better shot of the Frontier Airlines plane. Months earlier, a DJI Phantom 4 drone flying near Staten Island, N.Y., hit a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, damaging its main rotor blade because the sUAS pilot was deliberately flying beyond his visual line of sight.

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