Second Presentation of the John Adam Fleming Award

Abstract

James A. Van Allen, physicist and professor, has sustained an eminent record of achievement in his chosen professions for almost twenty‐five years. Graduating summa cum laude in physics from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1935, he then attended the State University of Iowa where he received his doctor's degree in nuclear physics in 1939.Upon graduation, he joined the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington under Dr. John A. Fleming to carry on research in nuclear physics. In 1940 he joined a war‐time group at DTM which developed photoelectric and radio proximity fuses; subsequently Dr. Van Allen joined the Pacific Fleet as technical and gunnery officer to advise upon and direct the use of proximity fuses in naval combat. He returned to civilian research in 1946 with the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, where he organized and directed a research team conducting high‐altitude experimental work. In 1950 he accepted a post at the Brookhaven National Laboratory as Guggenheim Memorial Foundation research fellow. In 1951 Dr. Van Allen returned to his graduate alma mater, the State University of Iowa, as Professor of Physics and Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.