Hall was named in 1991 the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator, an award given to one of the most creative under 35 scientists of the year.
Hall joined Norfolk State in 1997 and, in 2005, received a $3.6 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health over five years to create a Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences, which Hall now directs. In addition to funding Hall’s research, the grant is designed to increase the number of minority students and faculty studying in the biomedical sciences.
The desire to guide minority students into scientific research is partly what brought Hall to Norfolk State. “I try to involve undergrads in a lot of the research,” he says.
He notes, that while historically Black institutions generate nearly half of all Black science graduates earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the number of science graduates earning doctorates from these schools is small.
“In 1985, I was the only Black to get a Ph.D. in chemistry in the country,” says Hall, who earned his doctorate from Kent State University in Ohio.
The NIH is particularly concerned about the low percentage of Black scientists, “because there are a number of diseases that disproportionately affect African-Americans, such as diabetes and HIV,” Hall says.
The lack of diversity in terms of gender and race in scientific research means there’s less focus on improving the health outcomes of these populations, he says.
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