Professor Alex Halliday FRS, Vice President (Physical Secretary), the Royal Society
Professor Alex Halliday has been Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at Oxford University since October 2007.
Before coming to Oxford, he spent twelve years as a professor at the University of Michigan and then six years in Switzerland, where he was Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the ETH in Zürich. In 2004 he took up the Chair of Geochemistry at Oxford, where his research involves the use of isotopic methods to study Earth and planetary processes.
Professor Halliday is a former President of the Geochemical Society and of the European Association for Geochemistry. He has experience with a range of top science boards and advisory panels including those of the Natural Environment Research Council, the Natural History Museum London, the Max Planck Society, the Royal Society and the American Geophysical Union.
An enthusiast for technological innovation, most of Professor Halliday's recent research is in developing and using new mass spectrometry techniques to shed light on the origin and early development of the solar system and recent earth processes, such as continental erosion and climate. However, he has also been engaged in other studies, such as the mechanisms of volcanic eruptions, and the formation of mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.
Professor Halliday's scientific accomplishments have been recognised with awards including the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society, the Bowen Award of the American Geophysical Union and the Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000.