I was born in Columbia, Louisiana (in Caldwell Parish) on September 1, 1954. My father, Leslie Earl Manley (b. December 25, 1906) worked as a demolition expert on road construction jobs until his death (November 8, 1975) shortly after I entered graduate school. My beloved mother, Mable Ann Manley (née Lee), was born on April 5, 1917. For several years, she resided in Monroe, Louisiana until her death on August 3, 2002. At various times, she worked in sales, bookkeeping, as a radio dispatcher, and in apartment security. I have one sister, Wanda Ann Manley (b. August 18, 1950), and two brothers, Daniel Leslie Manley (b. August 27, 1943), and Ronald Paul Manley (b. September 1, 1954). In 1972, I graduated from Caldwell Parish High School, where I was class salutatorian. While in high school, I developed some small talent as an artist and created a number of oil paintings. I also had a strong interest in observational astronomy.

In the summer of 1972, I began college as a physics major at Northeast Lousisiana University (now The University of Louisiana at Monroe). My intent was to obtain the necessary physics and mathematics background to make it possible to study astronomy in graduate school. By the time I received my B.S. degree in physics, magna cum laude, my interests had somewhat shifted more toward astrophysics than pure astronomy. I decided to obtain a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming which at the time was making national headlines for plans to build what later became known as WIRO, the Wyoming Infrared Observatory. I entered graduate school at the University of Wyoming's Department of Physics and Astronomy in August, 1975. Without really planning to do so, I passed the Ph.D. candidacy exam in 1977 and decided to go directly for a doctorate. As a graduate student, I had the opportunity to teach astronomy labs, which included an observational component that I greatly enjoyed. After working one summer with the infrared astronomy group, I realized that my interests had shifted more toward physics, and so, I gave up my plans to become an astronomer. While attending graduate school, I met my future wife, Mari Takai (b. May 20, 1949), who was working on a masters degree in psychology. Mari was born in Niigata, Japan, where her family still lives. We were married on a mountain in Wyoming on July 23, 1977, after which she changed her name to Mari Takai-Manley.

In February, 1978, Mari and I moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico where I began experimental research working with Professors Ray Kunselman and Glen Rebka, who later became my dissertation advisor. (Glen was a student of Robert V. Pound, and the famous Pound-Rebka experiment is named after them.) My first experiment involved using pionic titanium to test the Klein-Gordon equation. We were stationed in Los Alamos until 1981, when I finished my dissertation, ``Measurement and Isobar-Model Analysis of the Doubly Differential Cross Section for the pi⁺ Produced in pi^- p --> pi⁺ pi^- n''. Living in Los Alamos was a wonderful opportunity to hear talks by Nobel laureates and to be exposed daily to the many advantages of working at a national laboratory. My one regret about our move to Los Alamos was that Mari never completed her masters degree in psychology.

In 1981, I began work at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Physics in Blacksburg, Virginia. My postdoctoral position at Virginia Tech involved primarily carrying out an extensive isobar-model partial-wave analysis of the world's bubble chamber data for pi N --> pi pi N reactions. My supervisors were Richard Arndt and L. David Roper, who are highly regarded for their research involving partial-wave analyses. While at Virginia Tech, I was delighted that Mari returned to graduate school and finally completed a masters degree in counseling.

In 1984, I made a career move to begin a second postdoctoral position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. For the first time, I began to study about complex nuclei. My supervisor at Livermore, Barry Berman, is now a Professor of Physics at The George Washington University. In the two years that we lived in Livermore, I was mainly involved in analyzing electron scattering data from the rare isotopes of oxygen. I also participated, however, in a pion-scattering experiment on a rare silicon isotope at TRIUMF in Vancouver, B.C.

In 1986, we moved across the country to Kent, Ohio where I had accepted a faculty position in the Department of Physics at Kent State University. The following year, I became a member of the American Physical Society. I purchased a piano after moving to Kent, but alas, I have not played for quite a while. I have, however, managed to develop an impressive mineral collection (if I do say so myself). Mineral collecting is a hobby that I originally developed as a boy in Louisiana. On rare occasions, I have dabbled in poetry. I also enjoy reading science fiction and ``thriller'' novels. My favorite authors include Greg Bear, Ben Bova, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robin Cook, Rick Hautala, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robert R. McCammon, Anne Rice, and John Saul.

My research during the early years at Kent focused mainly on experimental studies of nuclear structure using inclusive electron scattering at the MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator Center. I also participated in many (p,n) experiments at IUCF (the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility) in Bloomington, Indiana. The (p,n) experiments were led by my friends and colleagues, Bryon Anderson and John Watson. I haved supervised the research of 12 graduate students: Michael Saleski (M.S., 1990); Mark Sellers (Ph.D., 1991); Joseph Ruthenberg (M.S., 1995); Martin Niboh (Ph.D., 1997); John Olmsted (Ph.D., 2001); and John Tulpan (Ph.D., 2007), Hongyu Zhang (Ph.D. 2008), Kabi Bantawa (Ph.D. 2009), Manoj Shrestha (Ph.D. 2012), Brian Hunt (Ph.D. 2017), ChandraSekhar Akondi (Ph.D. 2018), and Haoran Sun (Ph.D. in progress). My research has been supported primarily by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. At Kent, I also have been part of an experimental effort, led by Richard Madey, to measure the electric form factor of the deuteron. I am the webmaster for the Baryon Resonance Analysis Group (BRAG) and, in 2002, I was elected Chair of the BRAG Steering Committee. In 1995, I became a charter member of the new Crystal Ball Collaboration, engaged in experimental studies of baryon spectroscopy using pion and kaon beams at the Brookhaven National Laboratory AGS, which is located on Long Island, New York. I also have ties with the Hall A and Hall B experimental programs at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. Currently, my research is focused on the experimental and phenomenological study of baryon resonances. I am a member of the A2 Collaboration involved with experiments using real tagged Bremsstrahlung photons in Mainz, Germany.

I was promoted to full Professor in 1997. I have served for several years as the Physics Department's Undergraduate Coordinator.