Lidiard studied theoretical physics under
Charles Coulson at
King's College London, obtaining an MSc in 1950 and a PhD in 1952. He spent two years as a
Fulbright scholar in the USA, first as a research assistant for
Friedrich Seitz at the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and then under
Charles Kittel at
University of California, Berkeley. He took up a research fellowship in the Theoretical Division at
Atomic Energy Research Establishment in
Harwell. Between 1957 and 1961, he was a Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at
University of Reading. He returned to Harwell and set up the radiation damage theory group in the Theoretical Physics Division (TPD). Lidiard became the head of the TPD in 1966 until his retirement. Afterwards, he moved to the Department of Physics at University of Reading and the Department of Theoretical Chemistry at
Oxford University. == Honors and awards ==