Alex Halliday

Alex Halliday is Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and of Climate at Columbia University, and Founding Dean Emeritus of the Columbia Climate School. He was Director of Columbia’s Earth Institute (2018-23), and before that, Oxford University’s dean of science and engineering (2007-15) and Vice President (Physical Secretary) of the Royal Society (2014-18). Currently, he also is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School.  Halliday is an isotope geochemist known for novel mass spectrometry techniques and their applications to the Earth and planetary processes. 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, climate change, pollution, and human health. 

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 was a professor at the University of Michigan (1986-98), ETH Zürich (1998-2004), and Oxford University (2004-2018). He has 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 UK’s Natural Environment Research Council, the UK’s Natural History Museum, and, currently, the University of Cambridge. His honours include Fellowship of the Royal Society and International Member 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 both the Bowen Award and the Harry H. Hess Medal of the American Geophysical Union. In 2019 he was awarded a Knighthood for services to science and innovation.