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James Alfred Van Allen was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, on September 7, 1914, as the second of four sons of Alfred Van Allen, a lawyer, and Alma Van Allen. James was interested in science from an early age. When he was twelve, he and one of his brothers built an electrostatic generator that produced bolts of artificial lightening. In high school, physics became his passion, and at times teachers would have to eject him forcibly from laboratories at the end of the school day. Van Allen was graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1935. He earned his master of science degree in 1936 and his Ph.D. in 1939 from the State University of Iowa, in Iowa City. In 1942, Van Allen took a position with the Applied Physics Laboratory at The Johns Hopkins University and accepted a commission in the U.S. Navy to conduct weapons research. His first important scientific accomplishment came as a result of his war research: the radio proximity fuse. The fuse was a tiny radio transmitter and receiver attached to an explosive ordnance. Signals sent out and received by the fuse indicated when the weapon was close to the target, allowing it to explode before impact. Missile efficiency was greatly increased because it was no longer necessary to score a direct hit in order to knock out a target. INSET: James Van Allen. |
