Professor Donald Bradley FRS
Born in 1924, Professor Donald Bradley received his university education at Birkbeck where he obtained a first-class Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry in 1946, a PhD in Physical Inorganic Chemistry in 1950 and a DSc in 1959.
Professor Bradley’s first university appointment was also at Birkbeck, where he worked as a lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry for 10 years, before moving on to his first professorial appointment at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. In 1965 he was appointed to the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Queen Mary, London, where he served as Head of Department until 1983.
During the past 50 years his research has involved pioneering work on the synthesis and characterisation of compounds containing metal.
Recently, Professor Bradley’s research has involved the synthesis of volatile compounds of aluminium, gallium and indium, and, in collaboration with the late Professor Faktor and Dr Chudzynska, he devised a highly efficient process for the purification of trimethylgallium and trimethylindium. This procedure was patented by the Ministry of Defence and licensed to the Epichem company, who successfully exploited the process achieving worldwide sales.
Since 1965 Professor Bradley has served on many academic committees, including those of Queen Mary College and the University of London, holding the post of Chairman of the University Board of Studies in Chemistry, and membership of the University Academic Council and the Senate. Professor Bradley has also played an active role in the Royal Society of Chemistry, being a member of Council and serving successively as Honorary Secretary/Treasurer, Vice-President and President of the Dalton Division.
In 1986 he commenced a five-year stint as Executive Editor of the international journal, Polyhedron, and a year later he was made Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of London.
Some 265 academic papers and two monographs have been published by Professor Bradley. This research has been recognised by his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1980. He also received the Ludwig Mond Medal, as well as the Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1987.
In 1988 he was awarded a Royal medal by the Royal Society, as well as the Fellowship of Queen Mary. In addition to performing plenary lectures at international conferences, Professor Bradley has given invited courses of lectures in Australia, Brazil, China, Hungary, India and the US.
Professor Bradley attended the War Years Reunion Lunch for Birkbeck’s war-time graduates, hosted in September by the President of Birkbeck, Eric Hobsbawm.
