born Dec. 20, 1901, Tuscaloosa, Ala., U.S.
died Jan. 16, 1967, Boston, Mass.
U.S. physicist.
He worked as an engineer, then as a physics researcher at the University of Oxford (1925–29). From 1931 he continued his research at MIT, as a professor (1934–60). He developed a high-voltage electrostatic generator (later called the Van de Graaff generator) that served as a type of particle accelerator . In 1946 he cofounded the High Voltage Engineering Corp. to manufacture his accelerator. Widely used in atomic research, the device was also adapted to produce high-energy X rays for medical and industrial uses.