Hall, Philip (1904–1982)

English mathematician. He specialized in the study of group theory. In 1928 Hall began a study of prime power groups. From this work he developed his 1933 theory of regular groups. An investigation of the conditions under which finite groups are soluble led him in 1937 to postulate a general structure theory for finite soluble groups. In 1954, he published an examination of finitely generated soluble groups in which he demonstrated that they could be divided into two classes of unequal size. At the end of the 1950s Hall turned to the subject of simple groups, and later also examined non-strictly-simple groups.

Hall was born in London and studied at Cambridge, where he spent his whole career. He was professor of pure mathematics 1953–67.