Dr Martin Hall

Martin Hall's childhood passion for insects developed during his undergraduate BSc studies at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where his final lecture and project work focussed on applied entomology. He gained a PhD degree from Imperial College of the University of London in 1978, with a study of feeding behaviour in blow-flies, for which he was awarded the T.H. Huxley Award of the Zoological Society of London. He then worked in Africa until 1986 on the biology and control of tsetse flies, mainly in The Sudan and Zimbabwe. Since 1989 Dr Hall has worked at The Natural History Museum, London, where his current position is Head of the Veterinary Entomology Programme in the Department of Entomology. Martin's main research interests in veterinary entomology are on biting flies that transmit diseases and on flies whose larvae (maggots) feed on live animals, causing the condition known as myiasis. This work has involved extensive travel in Central and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East and has resulted in the publication of more than 80 scientific papers on these parasites and pests. He has ongoing projects in Hungary, Bolivia the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, mainly on screw-worm flies and horse flies. In addition to his veterinary studies, Dr Hall works as a forensic entomologist and he has acted as an expert witness on more than 70 criminal cases in the UK involving the investigation of insect evidence. He is presently conducting research to improve the methods used in forensic entomology to estimate the minimum post mortem interval of a corpse.