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Robert J. Van de Graaff

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Also known as Robert Jemison Van de Graaff

American physicist (1901–1967)

OverviewAI-generated

Robert J. Van de Graaff was a male person associated with Germany. He was born on December 20, 1901, and died on January 16, 1967. His musical output includes five works. The genres associated with his music include classical, classical period, complete, 32 sonatas, and beethoven gardiner.

Van de Graaff is recognized in the American Academy Arts Sciences collection. He has been referenced by 66 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 11 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Born
Robert Jemison Van de Graaff , ( 1901-12-20 ) December 20, 1901, Tuscaloosa, Alabama , U.S.
Died
January 16, 1967 (1967-01-16) (aged 65), Boston, Massachusetts , U.S.
Education
University of Alabama , ( graduated</span>"}]]}'>grad. 1922, 1923) University of Oxford , ( graduated</span>"}]]}'>grad. 1926, 1928)
Known for
Van de Graaff generator
Spouse
Catherine Boyden ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1936 ) ​
Relatives
Robert Jemison Jr. (maternal great-grandfather) Adrian Van de Graaff (brother) Hargrove Van de Graaff (brother) William T. Van de Graaff (brother)
Awards
Elliott Cresson Medal (1936) Duddell Medal and Prize (1947) Tom W. Bonner Prize (1966)
Fields
Physics
Institutions
Princeton University Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisor
J. S. E. Townsend
Doctoral students
John G. Trump

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Robert
Gender
male
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
Tuscaloosa
Place of death
Boston
Doctoral advisor
John Sealy Townsend
Doctoral student
John G. Trump
Field of work
physics
Image
Robert J van de Graaff faculty portrait cropped.png
Residence
Tuscaloosa
Show 6 more facts
date of birth
1901-12-20
date of death
1967-01-16
name in native language
Robert Jemison Van de Graaff
Commons category
Robert Van de Graaff
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~26 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Robert Jemison Van de Graaff (December 20, 1901 – January 16, 1967) was an American applied physicist and inventor. He is best known for developing the Van de Graaff generator, a high-voltage electrostatic machine that became a fundamental tool in nuclear physics research.

Raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Van de Graaff earned his DPhil degree at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. In Europe, exposure to Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, and J. Robert Oppenheimer encouraged him to develop methods for accelerating particles to nuclear energies. He built his first electrostatic generator at Princeton University in 1929 and demonstrated a 1.5-million-volt model in 1931, more than twice the highest direct current voltage previously achieved. After joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he constructed the 5-megavolt Round Hill generator. He collaborated with John G. Trump, his former student, on creating compact, gas-insulated machines, which became the first accelerators used in clinical medicine. During World War II, he directed development of high-voltage X-ray equipment for the U.S. Navy.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Robert J. Van de Graaff” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.