About Barry Halliwell
Born 1949. Barry Halliwell is a British biochemist, researcher and chemist, known for Ascorbate, Glutathione and Redox.
Barry Halliwell (born 18 October 1949) He moved to Singapore in 2000, and served as Deputy President (Research and Technology) of the National University of Singapore (2006–15), where (as of 2025) he continues to hold a Distinguished Professorship.
Early life and education Born in Preston, Lancashire in 1949, Halliwell was educated at Preston Grammar School. He attended St Catherine's College, University of Oxford (1968–71), achieving a BA with First Class (honours) in biochemistry. He was also awarded the Rose Prize for the best final papers of any candidate in biological sciences. His D.Phil in plant biochemistry was also at Oxford, supervised by Frederick R. Whatley and Vernon Butt; As of 2018 he is a professor in the department of biochemistry at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Halliwell is currently the Senior Advisor, Academic Appointments and Research Excellence, Office of the Provost, at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also Chairman of the Biomedical Research Advisory Council (BMAC), Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR).
Halliwell served as the NUS's first Deputy President (Research and Technology) in 2006–15, founding the Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, and overseeing a more than doubling in the university's research grants and the creation at NUS of Singapore's first Research Centre of Excellence (RCEs). He was subsequently appointed Senior Advisor to the NUS President.
His textbook, Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine, co-written with John M. C. Gutteridge, is considered "an authoritative text in the field". His work is highly cited; in 2011, eight of his research articles had each received over a thousand citations, His earliest research was in plants, where with Christine Foyer and others in 1976, he discovered the glutathione–ascorbate cycle (also known as the Foyer–Halliwell–Asada pathway) by which chloroplasts remove damaging hydrogen peroxide.
Halliwell was awarded a Doctor of Science honoris causa by King's College London in 2018. He was again identified as a "Highly Cited Scientist" for cross-disciplinary work by Clarivate Analytics in 2018. He was honoured as a Citation Laureate (2021) for "pioneering research in free-radical chemistry including the role of free radicals and antioxidants in human disease". The distinction is awarded by information and insights company Clarivate to researchers whose work has been deemed to be of "Nobel Class" as they are among the most highly cited and influential, even transformative, in their fields. Citation Laureate candidates are selected from authors of the 0.01 per cent of some 52 million articles and proceedings that have been cited 2,000 times or more. He was one of 16 scientists (one of three in Chemistry) around the world listed in the Hall of Citation Laureates for 2021.
Selected publications Books Barry Halliwell, John MC Gutteridge. Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine (5th edn) (Oxford University Press, 2015) Barry Halliwell. Chloroplast Metabolism (2nd edn) (Oxford University Press, 1984) Reviews
Murphy MP, Bayir H, Belousov V, Chang CJ, Davies KJ, Davies MJ, Dick TP, Finkel T, Forman HJ, Gems D, Janssen-Heininger Y, Kagan VE, Kalyanaraman B, Larsson NG, Mile GL, Nyström T, Poulsen HE, Radi R, Remmen HV, Schumacker PT, Thornalley PJ, Toyokuni S, Winterbourn CC, Yin H, Halliwell B. (2022) Guidelines for measuring reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage in cells and in vivo. Nature Metabolism 4, 651–662. Research articles Halliwell B, Watt F, Minqin R. (2023) Iron and atherosclerosis: Lessons learned from rabbits relevant to human disease. Free Radic. Biol. Med. 209, 165–170. Yau YF, Cheah IK, Mahendran R, Tang RMY, Chua RY, Goh RES, Feng L, Li J, Kua EH, Chen C, Halliwell B. (2024) Investigating the efficacy of ergothioneine to delay cognitive decline in mild cognitively impaired subjects: A pilot study. J. Alzheimer's Disease 102, 841–854.
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Important facts
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Barry Halliwell?
biochemistry researcher, academic
When was Barry Halliwell born?
Barry Halliwell was born on 18 October 1949 in Preston.
What is Barry Halliwell's occupation?
Barry Halliwell is a biochemist, researcher and chemist.
What is Barry Halliwell known for?
Barry Halliwell is known for Ascorbate, Glutathione and Redox.
What nationality is Barry Halliwell?
Barry Halliwell is British.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Barry Halliwell. https://biography.guide/barry-halliwell/
MLA: "Barry Halliwell." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/barry-halliwell/.
Chicago: "Barry Halliwell." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/barry-halliwell/.
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