Derek Bradley is an academic engineer with substantial practical experience of combustion. Known for his work on instabilities of laminar flames, effects of turbulence on burning rates, origins of auto-ignition and transitions to detonations, he has worked with oil, automotive, and gas turbine companies to develop fuels, engines and turbines with improved efficiencies and reduced carbon dioxide and noxious emissions.

His models and comprehensive experimental burning velocity correlations are widely employed. These fundamental studies are pertinent to the avoidance, or mitigation, of explosions and fires. Accordingly, Derek has conducted consultancies on the British Gas Canvey Island LNG Terminal, the Airbus Concorde fire and the Buncefield Major Incident Investigation, amongst other incidents.

Derek’s honours include the 1992 Alfred C. Egerton Medal of the Combustion Institute for his distinguished contributions to the field of combustion. He received the Huw Edwards Prize of the Institute of Physics and is a triple recipient of the Sugden Prize of the Combustion Institute’s British Section. He was also awarded the Gelfand Medal for promoting scientific cooperation with the Institute’s Russian Section.