Peter W Halligan

Prof Halligan is a former Civil Servant and University senior executive. Previously, he worked at two Russell Group Universities (Cardiff and Oxford) and was Chief Executive of Wales's National Academy. A neuroscientist by background, with qualifications in psychology, philosophy, education and neuroscience, his theoretical and applied advances in neurological and psychiatric disorders has received international recognition and funding. This research involved international collaborative working across a range of disciplinary fields and methods, including clinical neuropsychology, behavioural neurology, cognitive neuroscience, health psychology and social science.

Prof Halligan spent 14 years at Cardiff University as Professor of Neuropsychology, Director of CUBRIC (Wales first multimodal neuroimaging facility) and Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies (2006-12). While at Cardiff University, he was responsible for establishing Cardiff’s University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), and played a key role in establishing Wales Research and Diagnostic Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Centre (PETIC), Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (WICN), the UnumProvident Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research, the Cardiff Cognitive Neuroscience International Seminar Series, the School of Psychology’s MindArt project, the Haydn Ellis Distinguished Lecture Series and the Cardiff University Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. As Chair and Academic lead of the Welsh Crucible - a unique, all Wales staff leadership programme for early career researchers- his team won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to UK HE Leadership Development in 2013.

Before Cardiff University, he spent 13 years at the University of Oxford, initially as a research fellow in the Department of Clinical Neurology and later as an MRC Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology before moving to Cardiff’s School of Psychology as a Distinguished Research Professor in 2000.

A Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Learned Society of Wales, and Academy of Medical Sciences, he was awarded the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Spearman Medal for outstanding published research in 1993, and 12 years later the BPS Presidents’ Award for outstanding contributions to psychology. In 2005, he was also awarded the Psychological Society of Ireland’s Special Award for outstanding contributions to psychology. In 1996 he launched the Taylor Frances journal Cognitive Neuropsychiatry with Prof Anthony David which continues to publish original papers, short reports, case studies and reviews and has over the past 2 decades has years played a pioneering role in establishing and shaping cognitive neuropsychiatry -a vibrant sub-discipline within the cognitive neurosciences.

Since 1987, Prof Halligan has published more than 250 peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and books across a range of subject areas spanning neuro-cognitive and health care sciences and secured over 29,000 citations and a H-index of 86 (Google Scholar). Finally, he has developed and commercialised several clinical tests, and educational videos,