JAMES VAN ALLEN SIGNED PHOTO, "J. A. Van Allen", 3.5 x 5, b/w, portrait, by space scientist of first space-age scientific discovery: the Van Allen Belts. In fine condition.
HE
DEVELOPED THE FIELD OF SPACE SCIENCE
James Alfred Van Allen (September 7, 1914 – August 9,
2006) was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa.
He was instrumental in establishing the field of magnetospheric research in
space.
The Van Allen radiation belts were
named after him, following their discovery by his Geiger–Müller tube instruments
on the 1958 satellites: (Explorer 1, Explorer 3, and Pioneer 3) which provided data and information that regions of
intense radiation surround the Earth. The discovery marked the birth of the
research field of magnetospheric physics. At the National Defense
Research Committee (NDRC) in Washington,
D.C. he worked on the development
of photoelectric and radio proximity fuzes. NDRC's most important project eventually
became the Manhattan Project in
1941. In 1951 Van Allen accepted the position as head of the physics
department at the University
of Iowa. Before long, he
was enlisting students in his efforts to discover the secrets of and inventing
ways to carry instruments higher into the atmosphere than ever before. His
1953 space experiments first detected the first hint of radiation belts
surrounding earth. Data from Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 (launched March 26,
1958) were used by the Iowa
group to make "the first space-age
scientific discovery": "the existence of a doughnut-shaped region of
charged particle radiation trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field". In
all, Van Allen was the principal investigator for scientific investigations on
24 Earth satellites and planetary missions. In 1987, President Ronald
Reagan presented the National Medal
of Science, the U.S.'s
highest honor for scientific achievement, to James Van Allen at White House
ceremonies. In 1989, he received the
Crafoord Prize, awarded by the Royal
Swedish Academy
of Sciences in Stockholm
and presented by the King of Sweden. The Crafoord Prize is the highest award
the Academy can bestow for research in a number of scientific fields and, for
space exploration, is the equivalent of
the Nobel Prize.
$95 #10614
