Benjamin D. Hall (1932-2019) graduated from the University of Kansas in 1954, majoring in Chemistry. He then completed graduate studies at Harvard University, receiving a doctoral degree in Biophysical Chemistry in 1958. His thesis research described and named the two major RNAs (18S and 28S) of the ribosome. He was on faculty at the University of Illinois from 1958 to 1963.

In 1963 He moved to the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington where he developed a research program directed toward understanding transcription by RNA Polymerases II and III in the yeast S. cerevisiae. This culminated in 1981 in two inventions that established Saccharomyces as the organism of choice for the production of vaccines (against Hepatitis B and Human Papilloma viruses) and other proteins of pharmaceutical interest, among them, insulin.

Dr. Hall was a decorated member of the faculty, named a Guggenheim Fellow and in 2004 the UW named him their first Inventor of the Year. In 2010, he received the University of Kansas Distinguished Service Award and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hall was selected for membership to the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” Even after formal retirement in 2007, he remained a fixture at the UW where he continued to run his lab, conduct research and inspire the students under his wing, as well as his colleagues in the Departments of Biology and Botany and UW Medicine’s Department of Genomic Sciences.

Sources: https://www.washington.edu/president/2019/04/02/in-memoriam-ben-hall/

https://www.wrfseattle.org/story/dr-benjamin-d-hall-1932-2019-university-of-washington/

http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20033163.html