Prof Michael N. Hall

Prof Michael N. Hall received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) and the University of California, San Francisco. He joined the Biozentrum of the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1987, where he is currently Professor and former Chair of Biochemistry. In 1991, Hall and colleagues discovered mTOR (mechanistic Target of Rapamycin) and subsequently elucidated its role as a central controller of cell growth. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards, including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Canada Gairdner Award, the Albert Lasker Award and, the Balzan Prize.

"A true discovery is finding the unknown, the unexpected, which cannot be planned or predicted. Curiosity-driven activity, without a fixed goal in mind, enables finding the unknown." -- Prof Michael N. Hall on Design in Dialogue: Connect + Transform