With four research council chief executives due to come to the end of their terms of office in March, there is plenty of speculation as to who will be staying, coming and going.
Among those who could take over at the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council is Ian Halliday, head of the University of Wales, Swansea's physics department. Some in the particle physics community believe that, as Europe is about to build the Large Hydron Collider, someone at the experimental end of the subject may be more apt. However, a particle physicist is needed to balance the books as astronomer Ken Pounds, the present incumbent, returns to Leicester University.