28 Jun 07

Professor Alex N Halliday, FRS, is to become the new Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at Oxford University. He will take up the appointment on 1 October 2007.

Before coming to Oxford, Professor Halliday spent twelve years as a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US, and then six years in Switzerland as Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the ETH in Zurich. In 2004 he took up the Chair of Geochemistry at Oxford, where his research involves using isotopic methods to study Earth and planetary processes and has resulted in around 290 articles in scientific journals including Science and Nature.

Professor Halliday, a Fellow of St Hugh's College,is a former President of the American Geochemical Society and the current President of the European Association for Geochemistry. He has experience with a range of top science boards and advisory panels currently including those of the Natural Environment Research Council, the Natural History Museum London, the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz and the American Geophysical Union. He is also a member of sub-panel 17 of the 2008 RAE.

With considerable experience of different teaching systems he is particularly interested in the challenges of providing an outstanding education within the evolving landscapes of secondary school curricula and meeting the demand for mathematics, science and engineering graduates both in the UK and internationally.

An enthusiast for technological innovation, most of Professor Halliday's recent research is in developing and using mass spectrometry 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 is also engaged in other studies, from the mechanisms of volcanic eruptions to the formation of mineral and hydrocarbon deposits to the development of civilisation.

Professor Halliday's scientific accomplishments have been recognised with awards including the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society and the Bowen Award of the American Geophysical Union. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000.

He takes over as Head of MPLS Division from Professor Keith Burnett, who will become Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield in October.