James Van Allen was born into a Dutch family who migrated to U.S.A. and settled down in Iowa. He was born on the 7th September 1914 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
After his early education in the Wesleyan College Mount Pleasant, Iowa, he entered the Universities of Iowa, Princeton and Harvard, U.S.A. respectively.
He spent most of his time serving as a physicist at the University of Iowa, U.S.A.
He has given his name to the largest feature of planet Earth, the belts of charged atomic particles that make up the inner magnetosphere and they are now known as ‘Van Allen Belts.’
Van Allen designed the high precison electronic equipments for the satellite ‘Explorer’, and analized and interpreted the data sent by them.
In the latter part of his career, Van Allen extended his studies from the Earth to the larger and more complex magnetospheres of the outer space.
James Van Allen passed away on the 9th August 2006 in Iowa City, Iowa.
