biology

Neil Hall

Neil Hall is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Neil Hall rather than just read about it. In short: Professor Neil Hall is head of the Earlham Institute, a life science research centre in Norwich, England, and director of the Hall Group, which aims to understand why some infectious agents are more damaging than others. Early life and education Neil Hall studied at Colonel Frank Seely School in Calverton, Nottinghamshire.

Key takeaways

Neil Hall belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Neil Hall to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Neil Hall from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Professor Neil Hall is head of the Earlham Institute, a life science research centre in Norwich, England, and director of the Hall Group, which aims to understand why some infectious agents are more damaging than others.

Early life and education

Neil Hall studied at Colonel Frank Seely School in Calverton, Nottinghamshire. He is dyslexic and at school was drawn to science as it was an area in which he felt he could excel. He was fascinated by genetics and inheritance. He has a B.S. in genetics and a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Liverpool.

Career Hall was a professor at the University of Liverpool from 2007 to 2016. From April 2016 he has been head of the Earlham Institute where he leads the Hall Group, which aims to understand why some infectious agents are more damaging than others. In May 2020, he proposed weekly testing for COVID-19 to cover the whole of Norwich.

Selected publications "Genome sequence of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum", Nature, 419 (6906), 498-511 (joint) "The genome of the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei", Science, 309 (5733), 416-422 (joint) "The genome of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum", Nature, 435 (7038), 43-57 (joint) "Genomic sequence of the pathogenic and allergenic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus", Nature, 438 (7071), 1151 (joint) "Accurate determination of microbial diversity from 454 pyrosequencing data", Nature Methods, 6 (9), 639-641 (joint)

References

External links Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Neil Hall

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Neil Hall claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Neil Hall before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Neil Hall ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Neil Hall

In research: Neil Hall appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Neil Hall in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Neil Hall is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academics of the University of Liverpool, Alumni of the University of Liverpool, British biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Neil Hall outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Neil Hall in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Neil Hall means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Neil Hall out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neil Hall in simple terms?

Why does Neil Hall matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Neil Hall?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Neil Hall.