Victor Ernest Hall (February 11, 1901–July 23, 1981) was a Canadian scientist who researched

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

. His teaching and research career was spent at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He was executive editor of the ''Handbook of Physiology'' and long-time

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

of the peer-reviewed journal the ''

Annual Review of Physiology The ''Annual Review of Physiology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes review articles about physiology. First published in 1939 through a collaboration between the American Physiological Society and Annual Reviews, it was publish ...

''.

Early life and education

Victor E. Hall was born on February 11, 1901, in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

to parents Ernest Amos Hall, a physician, and Mary Louisa Hall . He was afflicted by

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

as a child; he relied on crutches to stand and walk. He attended the Victoria Normal School for one year and briefly attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

before transferring to

. He graduated from Stanford with his undergraduate degree in 1922, his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1925, and his

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

in 1928.

Career

After graduating with his Doctor of Medicine, Hall remained at Stanford to teach in the physiology department, becoming a full professor in 1941. He had research appointments at Harvard in 1936 and 1937, then at Cornell in 1937 and 1938. Though outside his research area, he had an interest in

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s. In 1945, he gave presentations to the public about the impact of the discovery of nuclear weapons and the possible civilian applications of nuclear technology. While at Stanford, one of his areas of research was the metabolic aspects of

thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

. He left Stanford in 1951 to teach at

(UCLA). In 1964, he became the founding director of UCLA's Brain Information Service; he remained co-director after his retirement from UCLA in 1968, keeping the position until 1972. When the ''

'' was founded in 1938, creator J. Murray Luck asked Hall to be an associate editor. When Murray retired from the editor position in 1947, Hall succeeded him. For more than twenty years (1947–1971), Hall was the

of the ''Annual Review of Physiology''. He was also the executive editor of the ''Handbook of Physiology'', published by the

American Physiological Society The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology or other health professions. Its mission is to support research and ...

Personal life and death

He married Frances Marie Gould, one of his former students, in September 1940. They had several children. Hall died on July 23, 1981, in

Grand Forks, North Dakota Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Victor E Stanford University School of Medicine alumni 1981 deaths People from Victoria, British Columbia Stanford University alumni Stanford University faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty 1901 births Annual Reviews (publisher) editors