Professor Hal holds a Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Brighton. He was the first scientists ever to be allowed to do explosive demonstrations in the House of Commons in in 2011. Unlike Guido Fawkes Hal's explosives *did* work. .

He has an international reputation for performing high-end exhibition science, most recently at the All Russia Science Festival in Moscow and the Abu Dhabi Festival of Science. He has also toured Europe extensively.

He has a wide spectrum of science-on-television appearances, including children’s television where he co-presented the lab on ITV’s Ministry of Mayhem and BBC’s Bright Sparks, on which he had his own science slot. He has also appeared on mainstream science programmes such as BBC4’s The Volatile History of Chemistry, BBC2’s Rocket Science, National Geographic’s The Mystery Files, BBC’s History Cold Case and BBC’s Science Britannia. He is the man Brian Cox asks for chemistry advice (no, really).He is the resident Science Boffin (how I hate that expression) for several local radio stations, Radio 4’s Broadcasting House and ITV’s Meridian News. He is/was Science Consultant for: Big Brother (Endemol TV), Only Fools on Horses (Endemol TV) Adventure Island (RDF Television) and Science Changed My Life (Outline Productions). He also consults for the Science Museum Live! Brainiac Live show, and has an international reputation for running live science. He is particularly keen on facilitating the facilitators: see his series: Demonstrating Chemistry - Spectacular Experiments.