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Biography of Robert Hall

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Hall earned a B.S. in Physics at CalTech in 1942 and a Ph.D. in physics at CalTech in 1948. He then returned to the General Electric Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, where he had worked during WorldWar II on continuous wave magnetrons to jam enemy radar. These were later incorporated into microwave ovens.

After the war Hall worked first on transistors, succeeding in making ingots of never-before-available intrinsic germanium from which devices could be fabricated. A 'chance observation' while measuring the electrical properties of one of these ingots led him to his discovery of alloyed p-n junctions, the fundamental elements of power rectifiers and some transistors. During the 1970s energy crisis Hall worked on photovoltaics and solar cells.