Anthony Martin Halliday (19 August 1926 – 18 March 2008) was a British physician and consultant in clinical neurophysiology. He worked most of his career at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

Career

Halliday was born on 19 August 1926 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

to William Reginald Halliday and Edith Hilda (née Macneile Dixon). His family history included numerous ancestors working in the field of medicine. Halliday was schooled at Dauntsey's School, he studied medicine at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

where he graduated in 1949. In 1950 he did his national service where he worked for the British Army physiological section. Halliday worked on finger tremor physiology, which seemed to be linked to sleepiness. His research was valuable as British pilots at times fell asleep while flying round the clock for the

Berlin airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road ...

. As such, it was noticed by Arnold Carmichael, the director of the neurophysiology unit of the National Hospital. Carmichael persuaded Halliday to come work at the National when he finished his national service in 1953. At first Halliday joined a research team, in 1961 he became a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and became the head of his own Medical Research Council. Halliday became interested in changes in brainwave patterns, caused by stimulation of the

sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the cen ...

s. He became best known for his work on pattern-reversal visual evoked potential. With Ian McDonald he developed a technique which led to laboratory tests for the diagnosis of

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. In 1989 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1991. Halliday died on 28 March 2008, aged 81, after having suffered from pulmonary fibrosis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, Martin 1926 births 2008 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Neurophysiologists Medical doctors from Liverpool 20th-century British Army personnel Deaths from pulmonary fibrosis