Hall, John S. (John Scoville), 1908-

Astronomy professor, Amherst College. Helped develop radar systems in World War II.

John Scoville Hall was born on June 20, 1908 in Old Lyme, Connecticut. His higher education began at Amherst College, from which institution he received his A.B. degree in 1930. Following his graduation from Amherst, he promptly enrolled at Yale University and earned his Ph.D in astronomy in 1933. In 1967, Hall received an honorary Sc.D degree from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Hall began working for Columbia University as an assistant astronomer in 1933. He remained in this position until 1934, at which time he began teaching at Swarthmore College's Sproul Observatory. In 1938, he left Swarthmore to work as an assistant professor at Amherst College, a post he retained until 1942. At this time, he began working in the field of radar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Lab. He left MIT in 1946 to return to Amherst College as an associate professor.

In 1948, Hall began working for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. as the director of the Astronomy and Astrophysics division. In 1952, Hall made his first trip to Flagstaff, Arizona to conduct site testing for the Naval Observatory's 40-inch telescope, which could no longer be used in Washington, D.C. due to its proximity to the city. After the telescope was finally moved in 1955, Hall continued to visit Flagstaff to use the telescope for his own research. During these visits, he became friendly with both the astronomers and the trustee of Lowell Observatory.

In September 1958 Hall became director of Lowell Observatory. During his tenure, he did much to revitalize the institution. Perhaps most importantly, he seized the opportunity presented by the launch of Sputnik in October of 1957 and the beginning of the "Space Race" to obtain federal funds to augment Lowell's own dwindling resources. He also acquired a new 42-inch telescope for the Observatory in 1966, two years after the mirror in the older 42-inch had been cracked while trying to update its optical system. Hall also rebuilt the staff at the Observatory and revived international respect for their work. By the time he retired in 1977, Lowell was a much stronger institution than it had been upon his arrival.

During his career, Hall made several important advances in the field of astronomy. While at Yale, he contributed greatly to the advancement of the photoelectric equipment used to measure the brightness of stars. Hall developed the procedure in which the photocell is cooled with dry ice, thus allowing the detection of fainter stars. He also pioneered the use of photocells in the scanning of stellar spectra, using a grating in order to isolate various stellar regions to make measurements of their colors, and using photoelectric photometry to study stars in the infrared. Hall also made important contributions to scientists' understanding of the interstellar medium's absorbtion of starlight, including the fundamental discovery (with Albert Hiltner) that this medium polarizes light from distant stars.

After his retirement, Hall moved to the Village of Oak Creek, where he lived until his death on October 15, 1991.