Year Inducted: 1989
Robert Jemison Van de Graaff was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on December 20, 1901, and was raised in the coun- try near Tuscaloosa. He studied engineering at the University of Alabama, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1922 and a master of science degree in 1923. He also studied physics at The Sorbonne and at Ox- ford, earning a doctor- ate in 1928.
It was while studying at The Sorbonne and at Oxford that Van de Graaff conceived the idea for the invention of his belt–charged electrostatic high- voltage generator, later known as the Van de Graaff Generator. The Van de Graaff Generator was the precursor for modern day research in charged particle accelerators used to “smash” atoms and study nuclear forces.
Van de Graaff was at the threshold of his scientific career when, as a National Research Fellow at Princeton in 1929, he constructed the first working model of the generator, operating at 80,000 volts. At the urging of Karl T. Compton, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Van de Graaff came to MIT in 1931 to start a series of developments of his invention for the precisely controllable acceleration of charged nuclear particles and electrons to high velocities for nuclear–physics research.
Van de Graaff became associate professor of physics in 1934, and remained in that position until he resigned from MIT in 1960.With John G. Trump, professor of electrical engineering at MIT, Van de Graaff adapted the principles of his high–voltage generator to the production of intense, penetrating X–rays for the precise treatment of deep seated tumors.
During World War II, Van de Graaff directed the MIT High Voltage Radiographic Project, sponsored by the Office of Scientific Research and Development. He led in the development of the electrostatic generator for the U.S. Navy to use in the radiographic examination of heavy ordnance. The experience gained in this project became a basis for the eventual commercial manufacture of the Van de Graaff Generator.
Trump and Van de Graaff founded High Voltage Engineering Corporation in late 1946, the first company organized with the express purpose of manufacturing particle accelerators.
In the late 1950s Van de Graaff invented the insulating–core transformer, which can generate powerful direct currents at higher voltages than possible with the conventional transformer–rectifier systems, for application in industrial processing with high–energy electrons.
Toward the end of his life, Van de Graaff concentrated on the development of a means for accelerating heavy ions, utilizing the tandem principle, with the objective of providing physicist complete freedom in choosing target and projectile nuclei.
Van de Graaff died in Boston, Massachusetts, January 16, 1967, at the age of 65.
