Professor Halliday (pictured left), who was Head of Swansea's Physics Department from 1992 - 1998, is currently Chief Executive of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and President of the European Science Foundation.  

His distinguished career includes leadership roles in many international scientific committees and boards, and from 1998 to 2005 he served as Chief Executive at the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.

Professor Halliday was born in Kelso, Scotland, and educated at Perth Academy and the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge.  His early research focussed on the dynamics of the strong force which holds together the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. He quickly established an international reputation in this field. He held research positions in Princeton and Cambridge before moving to Imperial College, London as a lecturer in 1967, where he stayed until 1992.

Professor Halliday was one of the first physicists in the U.K. to recognise the potential of high performance computing in theoretical particle physics, and studied particle structure by modelling spacetime as a discrete lattice of points using the fastest computers. He was influential in establishing lattice quantum chromodynamics as a major research activity in UK particle physics.

In 1992, Professor Halliday joined Swansea University as Head of the Department of Physics where, together with Professor David Olive, he founded the theoretical particle physics research group, now internationally recognised as a centre of excellence in the field.