Video transcript
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 Vandegraaff, 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 Spatz 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.
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