Dave completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Iowa in just three years with dual major in Physics and Mathematics. He completed his Masters of Science in Astronomy from Penn State University (PSU). During a time when many of his classmates were seeking education deferments, Dave interrupted his graduate studies to serve his country, spending four years in the U.S. Air Force during the height of the Vietnam War.

Dave earned a PhD in Astronomy from PSU. Beginning in 1976 and for some twenty-five years thereafter Dr. Hall supported the research, development, and application of data fusion processes and products across the scientific community and industry. This time included stints at MIT Lincoln Labs, Computer Sciences Corporation and HRB Systems. Dave returned to Penn State in 1993 as the Associate Director of the PSU Applied Research Laboratory (ARL). In the same year he founded Tech Reach, Inc. At ARL Dave provided technical leadership and strategic direction to some 150 scientists and engineers conducting research in signal processing, intelligent sensors, information science and technology, automated reasoning and the control of complex systems.

In 2001, Dave answered another calling; this time joining the ranks of a nascent PSU College of Information Sciences and Technology. As the founding Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, he was instrumental in the establishment of the IST Research Office. Dr. Hall was tenured in 2007 as a Professor of Information Sciences and Technology. In 2007, Dave stepped down from his Associate Dean position to establish a new research center from which to research, promote and teach data fusion. Hence, the Center for Network Centric Cognition and Information Fusion (NC2IF) was born. In January 2010, Dave assumed the mantel as the third Dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology. IST raised $23M towards the Penn State For the Future Campaign, achieving 130% of its campaign goal.

Dave Hall was a stalwart of the data fusion community for over thirty years. He pioneered the development of concepts and techniques that are human-centric in terms of targets, information sources and exploitation. He lectured internationally on the topics of multisensor data fusion, artificial intelligence, research management and technology forecasting. He was the author of over 200 technical papers, reports, book chapters, and books, including the text, Mathematical Techniques in Multisensor Data Fusion and co-editor of the Handbook for Multisensor Data Fusion. As a founding member of the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) Data Fusion Group, his contributions were instrumental to the development of the JDL Data Fusion Model, which remains the most widely used method for categorizing data fusion-related functions. Dr. Hall was awarded the Joseph Mignona award in 2001 to honor his contributions as a national leader in the Data Fusion Community and in 2003 he was named as an IEEE Fellow for his research contributions in MSDF.

Submitted by James Llinas, Alan Steinberg, and Jake Graham