January 13, 2006

Hall Receives Camille Dreyfus Distinguished Professorship

Dr. Hall (Photo: DeLaRosa Photography)

Dr. Carol K. Hall, Alcoa Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been named Camille Dreyfus Distinguished University Professor. Effective January 1, 2006, the appointment was approved by the NC State University Board of Trustees. She is the first woman to hold the prestigious Camille Dreyfus Professorship at NC State.

Hall, who is a leading researcher in applied thermodynamics and molecular simulation, is credited as a force for modernizing chemical engineering thermodynamics research. She was the first to demonstrate that statistical thermodynamics, which is normally used to describe the behavior of molecules, could also be used to describe the behavior of micron-sized particles. She developed the Generalized Flory Dimer theory and co-developed the Hall-Helfand correlation function.

Hall’s recent work focuses on the formation of ordered protein aggregates called amyloid fibrils, a cause or associated symptom of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and the prion diseases (e. g. , Mad Cow disease). In a recent breakthrough, Hall and her colleagues were able to create a computer model that simulates how amyloid fibrils form — a step that may lead to discoveries of how to slow or halt the disease process.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Hall was one of the first women to be appointed to a chemical engineering faculty in the United States. She joined the NC State faculty in 1985. She is the author of more than 160 journal articles and serves on the editorial board of six scientific journals. Hall earned her Ph. D. in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1972.

— weston —

Media contact:
Jennifer Weston, (919) 515-3848, weston@ncsu. edu
Dr. Carol K. Hall, (919) 515-3571, hall@turbo. che. ncsu. edu>

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