Review of "James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles," by Abigail Foerstner

 Review of

James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles, by Abigail Foerstner, ISBN 9780877459996

Five out of five stars

Humble and great are both understatements.

 For approximately a year in the early 1990’s, I worked as a programmer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa. During that time, I had a few brief encounters with Dr. Van Allen and he was as nice and humble as he is depicted in this book. Even though he had no idea who I was, he would smile at me when I said, “Hello Dr. Van Allen” and give a polite hello in response.

 That aside, as is stated in this book, his scientific achievements are off the charts.  Some of the most endearing aspects are how the early scientific packages were literally built from ad hoc parts. The local hardware stores were familiar with grad students from the physics department popping in looking for off-the-shelf hardware that they needed immediately as they constructed machines that were to be sent into space to test the environment.

 One of the best anecdotes occurs on page 250. In 1971 grad student Peter Alonzi got on a Greyhound bus in Chicago to go back to school at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. He sat down next to a nice man with a friendly smile and when he introduced himself the man shook his hand and said, “Hi, I’m James Van Allen.” Van Allen was on the bus to save money for the physics department and the two talked for four hours.

 A strong proponent of robotic exploration and an opponent of human spaceflight due to the relatively high cost, Van Allen was somewhat shunted aside in the political battles over funding for the shuttle and human occupied space stations. He was not surprised at the massive cost overruns and reduced operations of the shuttle and the International Space Station.

 A man that is extremely unappreciated for his talents as a hands-on scientist that knew how to build things and was exceptional at delegating responsibility, Van Allen should rank alongside others such as Edison, Tesla and the modern wonder children of the electronic age. It is not possible to read this biography and think otherwise.

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