In Memoriam: Dennis G. Hall

SPIE Fellow Dennis G. Hall, professor emeritus of physics, electrical engineering, and computer science at Vanderbilt University, died 6 January. He was 75 years old.

Hall was also Vanderbilt’s first associate provost and later vice provost for research, and dean emeritus of the Graduate School. In 1993, Hall was named director of the university’s Institute of Optics. He was also a member of the executive committee of the National Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell University, and a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the US Army Research Laboratory.

Born in Belleville, IL, Hall was an avid reader, writer, and amateur HAM radio operator.  He received his BS in physics at University of Illinois (1970), and his PhD in physics from University of Tennessee, Knoxville (1976); completing his dissertation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

Hall was well known in the optics community for his research on novel semiconductor lasers, optical waveguide phenomena, and impurity-related luminescence mechanisms in Group IV semiconductors.

An SPIE Member for more that 22 years, Hall was editor of the SPIE Milestone book Coupled-Mode Theory in Guided-Wave Optics, and two SPIE Proceedings volumes, Integrated Optics II, and Integrated Optics III. His other publications include more than 120 refereed articles and several book chapters.

Hall was also well known for his sense of humor. During a 1980's interview about Rochester’s then newly formed Center for Advanced Optical Technology, he noted, “We’re just 12 guys trying to save the universe.”

Read the full obituary from Vanderbilt University.