First Tandem VanDeGraff

Dr. Willard Bennett (on the right) and colleagues working on a Störmertron. In this experimental tube, developed by Professor Bennett, the Bennett team recreated a variety of streams of charged particles found in space as well as the doughnut-shaped rings of charged particles around the Earth later known as the Van Allen radiation belts.

Professor Willard Bennett is a member of the Inventors Hall of Fame. During his career he received his 67 patents, including one for the tandem VanDeGraff accelerator. The tandem VanDeGraff has been a workhouse in nuclear physics laboratories for decades. It is still in active use in research programs at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Rutgers University, and Western Michigan Universities, for example.