John G. Trump's Contributions to Science

Some scientists transform medicine, some help win wars.

John G. Trump did both. Born in the Bronx in 1907,

John G. Trump arrived at MIT in 1931

to work with Robert Van de Graaff, then building the world's most

powerful generators. Trump's research used vacuum tubes

and compressed gas to produce high voltage for powerful

X-rays, then used for the first radiation

treatments for cancer.

And then came the war. Trump helped found the Radiation

Laboratory

hosted at MIT, the center of America's wartime radar

effort, a program of a size and complexity rivaling the

Manhattan Project. Trump led the lab's British branch, and on

D-Day, his radars jammed German defenses, marked

drop zones, and guided bombers through cloud cover.

General Carl Spaatz called Trump's work, "One of the most important

factors contributing to our success." Peace did not slow him.

Trump returned to MIT and co-founded the High Voltage

Engineering Corporation, which brought radiation cancer treatments

to

hospitals worldwide and became the world's leading supplier of

research particle accelerators.

John Trump received the National Medal of Science for his life's work,

bringing the widespread beneficial application of ionizing

radiation to medicine, industry, and atomic physics,

posthumously presented by President Ronald Reagan to his son.

John Trump devoted his life to pushing his country's science and

technology forward. Today, we honor those who

do the same.