Life and career

• September 7, 1914: James Van Allen was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa
  Mount Pleasant, Iowa
  Mount Pleasant is a city in and the county seat of Henry County, Iowa, in the United States. The population was 8,668 in the 2010 census, a decline from 8,751 in the 2000 census. It was founded in 1835 by pioneer Presley Saunders.- History :...
  
  . His boyhood home, once maintained as a museum to him, is slated to be demolished soon. The new owner, Lee Pennebaker, has chosen not to demolish the home. It will be donated to the Henry County Heritage Trust, which plans on moving the house next to the old Saunders School which will be the home of the Henry County museum
• 1931: Van Allen graduated as valedictorian of Mount Pleasant Public High School.
• 1935: Van Allen received his Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, from Iowa Wesleyan College
  Iowa Wesleyan College
  Iowa Wesleyan College is a private four-year liberal arts college of the United Methodist Church located Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.Iowa Wesleyan is recognized as a pioneer in higher education in America. Founded in 1842, it ranks as the oldest coeducational college located west of the Mississippi River...
  
   in Mount Pleasant. During his undergraduate years, he studied with Professor Thomas Poulter
  Thomas Poulter
  -Biography:He was born on March 3, 1897 to Micajah Poulter in Salem, Iowa.While he was a physics professor at Iowa Wesleyan College he recognized James Van Allen as a student and put him to work, at 35 cents an hour, preparing seismic and magnetic equipment for the Antarctic Expedition.He was...
  
  , a first-class physicist. He tracked meteors, conducted a magnetic survey of Mount Pleasant, and measured cosmic rays at ground level.
• 1936: Van Allen earned his master’s degree in solid state physics from the University of Iowa
  University of Iowa
  The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
  
  .
• 1939: Van Allen received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of Iowa. His doctoral research was on measuring the cross-section of the deuteron
  Deuterium
  Deuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen. It has a natural abundance in Earth's oceans of about one atom in of hydrogen . Deuterium accounts for approximately 0.0156% of all naturally occurring hydrogen in Earth's oceans, while the most common isotope ...
  
  -deuteron reaction.

• 1940: As a staff physicist for the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., Van Allen worked on developing photoelectric and radio Proximity fuses for bombs, rockets, and gun-fired projectiles. It was here that Van Allen acquired his interest in cosmic ray
  Cosmic ray
  Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
  
  s.
• 1942: Van Allen joined the Applied Physics Laboratory
  Applied Physics Laboratory
  The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , located in Howard County, Maryland near Laurel and Columbia, is a not-for-profit, university-affiliated research center employing 4,500 people. APL is primarily a defense contractor. It serves as a technical resource for the Department of...
  
   (APL) of Johns Hopkins University
  Johns Hopkins University
  The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
  
   to continue his work on proximity fuses. Later in 1942, he entered the Navy, serving in the South Pacific Fleet as an assistant gunnery officer.
• 1946: Discharged from the Navy, Van Allen returned to civilian research at APL. He organized and directed a team at Johns Hopkins University to conduct high-altitude experiments, using V-2 rocket
  V-2 rocket
  The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
  
  s captured from the Germans at the end of World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
  . Van Allen decided a small sounding rocket
  Sounding rocket
  A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...
  
   was needed for upper atmosphere research and the Aerojet WAC Corporal
  Wac Corporal
  The WAC or WAC Corporal was the first sounding rocket developed in the United States. Begun as a spinoff of the Corporal program, the WAC was a "little sister" to the larger Corporal. It was designed and built jointly by the Douglas Aircraft Company and the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory.The...
  
   and the Bumblebee missile were developed under a US Navy program. He drew specifications for the Aerobee and headed the committee that convinced the U.S. government to produce it.
• December 29, 1947: Van Allen elected chairman of the V-2
  V-2 rocket
  The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
  
   Upper Atmosphere Panel. The panel was renamed Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel on March 18, 1948; then Rocket and Satellite Research Panel on April 29, 1948. The panel suspended operations on May 19, 1960 and had a reunion on February 2, 1968.
• March 1, 1949: Cmdr. Lee Lewis, Cmdr. G. Halvorson, S. F. Singer
  Fred Singer
  Siegfried Fred Singer is an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia...
  
  , and James A. Van Allen develop the idea for the Rockoon
  Rockoon
  A rockoon is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and automatically ignited...
  
   during the Aerobee rocket firing cruise of the U.S.S. Norton Sound.
• April 5, 1950: Van Allen left APL to accept a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
  
   research fellowship at the Brookhaven National Laboratory
  Brookhaven National Laboratory
  Brookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base...
  
  .
• 1951: Van Allen became head of the physics department at the University of Iowa. Before long, he was enlisting students in his efforts to discover the secrets of the wild blue yonder and inventing ways to carry instruments higher into the atmosphere than ever before. Van Allen was the first to devise a balloon-rocket combination that lifted rockets on balloons high above most of Earth’s atmosphere before firing them even higher. The rockets were ignited after the balloons reached an altitude of 16 kilometers.
• 1952: As TIME reported in 1959, "Van Allen’s ‘Rockoon
  Rockoon
  A rockoon is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and automatically ignited...
  
  s’ could not be fired in Iowa for fear that the spent rockets would strike an Iowan or his house." So Van Allen convinced the U.S. Coast Guard to let him fire his rockoons from the icebreaker Eastwind that was bound for Greenland. "The first balloon rose properly to 70,000 ft., but the rocket hanging under it did not fire. The second Rockoon behaved in the same maddening way. On the theory that extreme cold at high altitude might have stopped the clockwork supposed to ignite the rockets, Van Allen heated cans of orange juice, snuggled them into the third Rockoon’s gondola, and wrapped the whole business in insulation. The rocket fired."
• 1953: Rockoons fired off Newfoundland detect the first hint of radiation belts surrounding Earth. The low-cost Rockoon technique was later used by the Office of Naval Research
  Office of Naval Research
  The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
  
   and The University of Iowa research groups in 1953-55 and 1957, from ships in sea between Boston and Thule, Greenland.
• January 26, 1956: Symposium on "The Scientific Uses of Earth Satellites" held at the University of Michigan under sponsorship of the Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel, James A. Van Allen of The University of Iowa, Chairman.

• July 1, 1957: The International Geophysical Year begins. IGY is carried out by the International Council of Scientific Unions, over an 18-month period selected to match the period of maximum solar activity (e.g. sun spots). Lloyd Berkner, one of the scientists at the April 5, 1950 Silver Spring, Maryland meeting in Van Allen's home, serves as president of the ICSU from 1957 to 1959.
• September 26, 1957: Thirty-six Rockoons (balloon-launched rockets) were launched from Navy icebreaker U.S.S. Glacier in Atlantic, Pacific, and Antarctic areas ranging from 75° N. to 72° S. latitude, as part of the U.S. International Geophysical Year scientific program headed by James A. Van Allen and Lawrence J. Cahill of The University of Iowa. These were the first known upper atmosphere rocket soundings in the Antarctic area. Launched from IGY Rockoon Launch Site 2, Atlantic Ocean; Latitude: 0.83° N, Longitude: 0.99° W.
• October 4, 1957: The Soviet Union
  Soviet Union
  The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
  
   (USSR) successfully launches Sputnik 1
  Sputnik 1
  Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
  
  , the world's first artificial satellite, as part of their participation in the IGY.
• January 31, 1958: The first American satellite, Explorer 1, was launched into Earth's orbit on a Jupiter C missile from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Aboard Explorer 1 were a micrometeorite detector and a cosmic ray experiment designed by Van Allen and his graduate students. Data from Explorer 1 and Explorer 3
  Explorer 3
  Explorer 3 was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission...
  
   (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 Earth’s magnetic field.
• July 1958: United States Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act
  National Aeronautics and Space Act
  The National Aeronautics and Space Act is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . The Act, which followed close on the heels of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, was drafted by the United States House Select Committee on Astronautics...
  
   (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
   (NASA) as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
  National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
  The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
  
   (NACA) and other government agencies.
• December 6, 1958: Pioneer 3
  Pioneer 3
  Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 UTC on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration...
  
  , the third intended U.S. International Geophysical Year lunar probe under the direction of NASA with the Army acting as executive agent, was launched from the Atlantic Missile Range by a Juno II rocket. The primary objective of the flight, to place the 12.95 pound (5.87 kg) scientific payload in the vicinity of the moon, failed. Pioneer III did reach an altitude of 63,000 miles (101 Mm), providing Van Allen additional data that led to discovery of a second radiation belt. Trapped radiation starts at an altitude of several hundred miles from Earth and extends for several thousand miles into space. The Van Allen radiation belt
  Van Allen radiation belt
  The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. It is believed that most of the particles that form the belts come from solar wind, and other particles by cosmic rays. It is named after its discoverer, James...
  
  s are named for Van Allen, their discoverer.
• May 4, 1959: TIME magazine writers credited Van Allen as the man most responsible for giving the U.S. "a big lead in scientific achievement." They called Van Allen "a key figure in the cold war’s competition for prestige. ...Today he can tip back his head and look at the sky. Beyond its outermost blue are the world-encompassing belts of fierce radiation that bear his name. No human name has ever been given to a more majestic feature of the planet Earth."
• 1960 - 1985: Van Allen, his colleagues, associates and students at The University of Iowa continued to fly scientific instruments on sounding rockets, Earth satellites (Explorer 52 / Hawkeye 1
  Explorer 52
  Explorer 52 was a US satellite launched on June 3, 1974 from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Scout booster.This satellite was also known as:* Hawkeye 1* IE D* Injun 6* Injun F* Neutral Point Explorer* 07325...
  
  ), and interplanetary spacecraft including the first missions (Pioneer program
  Pioneer program
  The Pioneer program is a series of United States unmanned space missions that was designed for planetary exploration. There were a number of such missions in the program, but the most notable were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which explored the outer planets and left the solar system...
  
  , Mariner program
  Mariner program
  The Mariner program was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury from 1963 to 1973...
  
  , Voyager program
  Voyager program
  The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
  
  , Galileo spacecraft
  Galileo spacecraft
  Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft sent by NASA to study the planet Jupiter and its moons. Named after the astronomer and Renaissance pioneer Galileo Galilei, it was launched on October 18, 1989 by the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-34 mission...
  
  ) to the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Their discoveries contributed important segments to the world's knowledge of energetic particles, plasmas and radio waves throughout the solar system.
• 1985: Van Allen stepped down as the head of the Dept. of Physics & Astronomy in 1985, but continued his work at the University and served as the Carver Professor of Physics, Emeritus.
• October 9, 2004: The University of Iowa and the UI Alumni Association hosted a celebration to honor Van Allen and his many accomplishments, and in recognition of his 90th birthday. Activities included an invited lecture series, a public lecture followed by a cake and punch reception, and an evening banquet.
• August 2005: An Elementary School bearing his name opens in North Liberty, Iowa
  North Liberty, Iowa
  North Liberty is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is a suburb of Iowa City and part of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area....
  
  .
• August 9, 2006: Van Allen died at University Hospitals in Iowa City from heart failure

Honors

• TIME
  Time (magazine)
  Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
  
  magazine Man of the Year in 1960
• Elliott Cresson Medal
  Elliott Cresson Medal
  The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848...
  
   in 1961
• Distinguished Fellow, Iowa Academy of Science in 1975
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
  Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
  -History:In the early years, more than one medal was often awarded in a year, but by 1833 only one medal was being awarded per year. This caused a problem when Neptune was discovered in 1846, because many felt an award should jointly be made to John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier...
  
   in 1978
• National Medal of Science
  National Medal of Science
  The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
  
   in 1987
• Crafoord Prize
  Crafoord Prize
  The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord...
  
   in 1989
• Vannevar Bush Award
  Vannevar Bush Award
  The National Science Board established the Vannevar Bush Award in 1980 to honor Dr. Vannevar Bush's unique contributions to public service. His name is pronounced ....
  
   in 1991
• NASA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994
• National Air and Space Museum Trophy
  National Air and Space Museum Trophy
  The National Air and Space Museum Trophy was established in 1985.The trophy presented to the winners is a miniature version of "The Web of Space," a sculpture by artist John Safer....
  
  in 2006

Quotations

• "Certainly one of the most enthralling things about human life is the recognition that we live in what, for practical purposes, is a universe without bounds."
• "...Outer space, once a region of spirited international competition, is also a region of international cooperation. I realized this as early as 1959, when I attended an international conference on cosmic radiation in Moscow. At this conference, there were many differing views and differing methods of attack, but the problems were common ones to all of us and a unity of basic purpose was everywhere evident.
• "Many of the papers presented there depended in an essential way upon others which had appeared originally in as many as three or four different languages. Surely science is one of the universal human activities.