Neil Geddes obtained his doctorate in High Energy Particle Physics (HEP) from the University of Oxford in 1986.  Thereafter he joined the Particle Physics Department at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) where he remained until 2001. During this time Neil spent periods at CERN and SLAC, working as a member of the OPAL and BaBar collaborations to pursue research in Quantum Chromodynamics hadronisation models and matter-antimatter asymmetries.  Throughout his career Neil has had a strong interest in distributed computing and in April 2001 he joined the UK’s Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) to direct their e-science programme, which included the creation of the LHC Computing Grid Project.
In April 2004 Neil took up the post of Director of the UK’s National Grid Service, with responsibility for coordinating existing UK work in Grid deployment and operations and planning for how this should develop in the future. He now leads the e-Science Department in the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), with responsibility for data storage and management, scientific computing and grid technology development and exploitation in support of the scientific facilities operated by STFC.

Neil is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, has over 500 refereed publications covering particle physics and computing, and is a member of a number of National and International advisory panels on e-science and e-infrastructure including the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group and Expert Group for the review of Developing the UK’s e-Infrastructure for Science and Innovation.