David Hall and Marta Thoma Hall Celebrate Pomfret School’s Hall Physics Lab and new VISTA science building

Pomfret, Connecticut (December 19, 2024) - Students of Connecticut’s esteemed Pomfret Schoolreturning for their winter term are settling into their curriculum in a new state of the art scienceeducation and exploration building funded in part through a $1 million donation from worldrenowned technology innovator and Pomfret alum David Hall (class of 1970) and his wife, artist andphilanthropist Marta Thoma Hall.Dubbed ‘VISTA’ - Venue for Innovation, Science, Technology, and Academics, the facility is home toclassrooms and state of the art labs supporting coursework across a broad spectrum of scientificstudy, including aquaponics, robotics, forensics, astronomy, engineering, and environmentaldesign. This month, Pomfret announced the dedication of the Hall Physics Lab at VISTA in honor ofthe Halls’ ongoing contributions.“We are bearing witness to an age of significant technological advancement, as well as anacceleration of the pace of that advancement,” said David Hall. “In this important time forinnovation, we believe in helping prepare today’s students to enter our universities, our workforceand our research centers not just ready to apply what they’ve learned, but ready to innovate.Providing the tools and the environment in which educators can lay the groundwork for curiosity, forexploration, for experimentation and contextual critical thinking is central to this eVort.”The three-story building hosts facilities for a full range of scientific exploration, from flexibleclassrooms with drop-down electrical powering microscopes on movable lab benches, to a gridbased suspension system for hanging pendulum experiments, to state-of-the-art lab prep spaceswith pass-through chemical fume hoods. The classroom and lab spaces are centered around TheHub, a two-story open collaboration space with built-in seating for gathering and conversation withfloor-to-ceiling windows that invite natural light. The VISTA welcomed its first students in Fall 2024.“If the next generation is to flourish in a changing world, we must prepare them wisely, diVerently,”said Tim Richards, Head of School at Pomfret, who helped shepherd the VISTA building tocompletion following nearly two decades of planning. “Our plan balances the innovative andaspirational with the practical realities facing the students as they enter adulthood. We are gratefulto David Hall and Marta Hall for their gift which will help us expand our science and arts program.”David Hall is counted among the most accomplished of Pomfret’s distinguished graduates,credited as a lead developer of the LiDAR 3D sensor mapping technology behind the emergingautonomous vehicle industry. The founder of Velodyne LiDAR (now Ouster, following a 2023 merger)holds more than 30 patents in acoustics, visualization, and magnetics and has most recentlylaunched development eVorts in the space rocket launcher and marine stabilization technologyspaces.“High-school teachers are incredibly important to the growth of students who may become futureartists, scientists, and entrepreneurs – the innovators of tomorrow,” said Marta Thoma Hall. “We aredelighted to contribute to these spaces that facilitate their teaching with real-world, hands-onapplication.”Marta Thoma Hall is a co-founder and entrepreneur, renowned artist and philanthropist who, alongwith her husband in 2021, launched the Hall Art and Technology Foundation, a signature space toserve at the intersection of their contributions to the advancement of science, technology, the artsand social equity, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The HATF collects and showcases underrepresented artists and visionaries, partnering with universities and community arts organizationsto showcase works that invite introspection and dialogue around our natural and built worlds.David Hall and Marta Thoma Hall hope that their contributions to Pomfret and elsewhere will helpattract teaching talent and inspire the next generation of inventors, artists, and entrepreneurs. Thegift adds to a long history of contributions both financial and academic, spanning the coasts fromlocal donations to UC Berkeley and the UC Regents to their support in New England as well asnational philanthropic causes.For more information, visit www.hallartandtechnologyfoundation.com.