Physicist. Robert Van de Graff was an American physicist who was credited with his design and construction of the high-voltage Van de Graaff generator, which is an electrostatic generator that uses a moving belt to accumulate electric charge on a hollow metal globe on the top of an insulated column, creating a very high electric potential. The first of seven patents, his discovery holds U.S. Patent 1,991,236 as the "Electrostatic Generator." The generator has the potential to produce about 13,000,000 volts. His generator was used in nuclear physics research. For his scientific discovery, he was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953, 1964, and again shortly before his death in 1966. Born Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, the son of an attorney, he was the youngest of four brothers, who all attended the University of Alabama, with the three older brothers exceling in college football with one becoming the first All-American player from the University of Alabama. A football injury in his senior year in high school halted his college football playing. After earning a BS in mathematics in 1922 and MS in mechanical engineering in 1923 from the University of Alabama, he was an engineer with the Alabama Power Company when he first became interested in generators. In 1924 he studied in Paris at the Sorbonne, listening to the lectures of Marie Curie, turning his interest to Atomic Physics. The next year, he did research at Oxford University in England with Irish physicist J.S.E Townsend. While at Oxford, he earned a second B.S. in 1926 with a Rhode Scholarship, and completing his PhD under Townsend in 1928. During this time, he conceived the idea of the Van de Graff generator, developing it in the United States in 1929. He continued his research at Palmer Physics Laboratory at Princeton University from 1929 to 1931, becoming a National Research Fellow. In 1931 he became a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in 1934 was an associate professor. In November in 1934, at the first meeting of the American Physical Society, he demonstrated a model that produced more than one million volts. During World War II, Van de Graaff was director of the High Voltage Radiographic Project for the federal Office of Scientific Research and Development. After World War II in 1946, he, with the English scientist, Dr. Denis M. Robinson, and MIT professor John George Trump, co-founded the High Voltage engineering Corporation to manufacture his accelerator. He served as the company's chief physicist and chief scientist, and conducted important research in nuclear physics. In 1960 he left MIT, dedicating his time fully to manufacturing his product. Trump was the uncle of President Donald Trump. In 1936, he was awarded the Elliot Cresson Gold Medal, the highest award from the Franklin Institute. His largest generator is on displayed permanently at Boston's Museum of Science and in the 21st century, used for entertainment and educational events. Van de Graaff married Catherine Boyden in 1936, and the couple had two sons. By his death, 30 countries internationally were using his generator. His childhood home, Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion, was finished in 1862 by his maternal great-grandfather Robert Jemison Jr. and was added National Register of Historic Places in 1972.