James Alfred Van Allen (1914-2006) was an astrophysicist, geophysicist, and researcher. In 1933, he studied under Dr. Thomas Poulter, the chief scientist and second in command for the second Byrd Expedition to Antarctica. While Poulter was in Antarctica, Van Allen took observations of the Earth’s magnetic field from Henry County, Iowa at Poulter’s request. Van Allen received a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 1935 from Iowa Wesleyan University. Van Allen received his Master’s Degree in 1936, and Doctor of Philosophy in Nuclear Physics in 1939, both from the University of Iowa. After that, he became the Research Fellow in Nuclear Physics at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C. Van Allen was conducting research at the Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in 1942, when he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy. Van Allen and some of his co-workers accompanied a shipment of projectiles to the Pacific Fleet and helped distribute them to ships engaging in anti-aircraft combat. He was put on inactive duty by 1946, and returned to the Applied Physics Lab.

During a dinner party in 1950, Van Allen and several other scientists formed the first plans for International Geophysical Year (IGY) to take place during 1957-1958, when there would be maximum solar activity. The following year, Van Allen became Head of the Physics Department at the University of Iowa and served on several IGY committees. In 1952, Van Allen and his team developed the rockoon, a rocket launched from a balloon to measure primary cosmic ray intensity, Earth’s magnetic field, and anomalies in the magnetic field in the ionosphere. A year later, Van Allen was part of a team that launched rockoons in the Arctic region from the United States Coast Guard Cutter Eastwind that reached 250,000 feet and led to the discovery of the auroral soft radiation zone. In 1957, as part of the IGY, Van Allen led an expedition in Greenland to observe cosmic rays and magnetic fields, then went to Antarctica and launched rockoons aboard the United States Ship Glacier. In 1958, Van Allen and his team designed a payload, or communications instrument, for Explorer I, the first successful American satellite. The data acquired by their instrument resulted in the discovery of the radiation belts of the Earth, which were later named the Van Allen Belts. Van Allen stepped down from his position as head of the Physics Department at the University of Iowa in 1985, but continued teaching as the Carver Professor of Physics, Emeritus. Van Allen received numerous awards and honors throughout his life, including the United States National Medal of Science in 1987.