Van de Graaff generator

Van de Graaff, Robert Jenison (1901–1967), American physicist. Van de Graaff developed his generator as a device for producing the very high voltages necessary to accelerate particles to energies high enough to create new elements heavier than uranium. He built his first machine in the early 1930s, and in 1946 he cofounded a company to manufacture particle accelerators incorporating the Van de Graaff generator. These particle accelerators have found widespread use in medicine and industry as well as in high-energy physics research.