James Alfred Van Allen (born 7.09.1914) — American physicist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1959). Born in Mount Pleasant (Iowa). He graduated from the University of Iowa (1936). In 1939–42 he worked at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and in 1946–50 at Johns Hopkins University. From 1951 professor at the University of Iowa.
His research was in nuclear physics, cosmic-ray physics, space physics and spaceflight (the use of rockets, satellites and space probes to study the physics of space, of the planets and of the Sun). In 1958 he discovered the Earth's inner radiation belt.
The E. Cresson (1961) and J. Fleming (1963, 1964) medals and others.