Glenda Halliday is acclaimed internationally for her research on neurodegeneration, making major impacts on understanding disease progression, and her promotion of neuroscience, mentorship and contributions to research evaluation. From origins in comparative neuroanatomy, she established the Sydney Brain Bank and applied her expertise to clinicopathological correlations, revealing the anatomical, biochemical, molecular and genetic characteristics of several neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Her work has changed international diagnostic criteria, provided differentiating characteristics for neurological diseases and developed disease staging schemes. She has defined unique roles of certain genes and proteins, now being used to develop diagnostic protocols and potential therapies.