Robert Van de Graaff

Born on 20 December 1901 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Robert Van de Graaff was an engineer and physicist who developed the high-voltage generators that bear his name. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama. When studying further at the Sorbonne in Paris, he heard Marie Curie speak about radiation. Then, during his PhD studies at Oxford, Van de Graaff learned about Ernest Rutherford’s work in nuclear physics and the desire to accelerate particles for the study of atomic nuclei. Those influences led Van de Graaff to conceive of a high-voltage electrostatic generator . He built his first Van de Graaff generator at Princeton University in the early 1930s and received a patent for his invention in 1935. He conducted research for the US Navy during World War II and then cofounded the High Voltage Engineering Corporation with Denis Robinson and John Trump , the uncle of Donald Trump. The most powerful Van de Graaff generators can create voltages of a few tens of megavolts, which is high enough to perform experiments in nuclear physics. The generators have also found use for medical purposes and in striking museum demonstrations. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

Date in History: 20 December 1901