Alexander Norman Halliday - Biography#

Alex Halliday is an isotope geochemist known for novel mass spectrometry techniques and their applications to the Earth and planetary sciences. He is particularly recognized for his work on the development of multiple-collector inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry and its application to the timing and processes of accretion, core formation and volatile loss in the terrestrial planets. However, he has also worked on mantle geochemistry, silicic volcanism, mineral deposits, ocean tracers and pollution. Halliday comes from Cornwall, in the UK. He graduated in geology followed by a doctorate in physics, both from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He spent ten years at the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, then twelve years as a professor at the University of Michigan, followed by six years at ETH Zürich. He was at Oxford University from 2004 to 2018 before moving to Columbia University as Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Halliday was Oxford’s dean of science and engineering (MPLS) from 2007 to 2015. He was Vice President (Physical Secretary) of the Royal Society from 2014 to 2018. At Columbia he has been Director of the Earth Institute (2018-2023) and Founding Dean of the new Columbia Climate School (2021-2023). Halliday has also been President of the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, and the Volcanology, Geochemistry and Petrology Section of the American Geophysical Union. He has experience with a range of advisory and funding boards including as a trustee of the Natural Environment Research Council, the UK’s Natural History Museum, and the University of Cambridge. His honours include Fellowship of the Royal Society and Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society, the Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry, the Oxburgh Medal of the Institute of Measurement and Control and the Bowen Award and Harry H. Hess Medal of the American Geophysical Union. In 2019 he was awarded a Knighthood for services to science and innovation.

Full CV (March 2024)