John G. Trump

{{Short description|American engineer and physicist (1907–1985)}}

{{redirect|John Trump|the British engineer|John Trump (engineer)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = John G. Trump

| image = John G Trump portrait c1955 cropped.png

| caption = 1954 faculty portrait

| birth_name = John George Trump

| birth_date = {{birth date|1907|8|21}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|2|21|1907|8|21}}

| death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

| occupation = Electrical engineer

| education = Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BS)
Columbia University (MS)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (DSc)

| known_for = Van de Graaff generator
Electron beam sterilization of wastewater{{cite news |date=21 May 1977 |title=Sewage Problem Solved |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OVZOAAAAIBAJ&pg=2548%2C1643013 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |access-date=19 August 2015 |via=Google News Archive |page=2}}{{Patent|US|2123728|"High Energy Electron Treatment of Water" of Dr. John G. Trump, requested by High Voltage Engineering Corp}}{{Failed verification|date=March 2025|reason=The patent number seems to be incorrect. Existing description describes an invention registered by a different company and inventor.}}

| employer = MIT

| awards = King's Medal for Service (1947)
President's Certificate (1948)
Lamme Medal (1960)
National Medal of Science (1983)

| signature = DrJohnTrumpSignature.svg

| spouse = Elora Sauerbrun

| children = {{hlist|John|Christine|Karen}}

| parents = Frederick Trump
Elizabeth Christ Trump

| relatives = Trump family

| fields = Electrical engineering

| workplaces = MIT

| thesis_title = Vacuum electrostatic engineering

| thesis_url = https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/32556

| thesis_year = 1933

| doctoral_advisor = Robert J. Van de Graaff

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students = Jay W. Forrester (BS){{cite web |last=Mertz |first=Richard R |title=Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973 |date=1977 |website=Smithsonian National Museum of American History |url=https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC0196_forr691104.pdf |access-date=29 March 2025}}
Louis Smullin (MS){{cite web |last=Penfield |first=Paul, Jr. |title= Mr. Louis D. Smullin |website=National Academy of Engineering |url=https://www.nae.edu/28533/Mr-Louis-D-Smullin |access-date=4 April 2025}}
Mac Van Valkenburg (MS)

}}

John George Trump (August 21, 1907 – February 21, 1985) was an American electrical engineer, physicist, and inventor who engineered high-voltage electrostatic generators and found new applications for them in medicine, industry, and nuclear science. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1936 to 1973, where he directed the High Voltage Research Laboratory until 1980. He was the paternal uncle of President Donald Trump.

As an MIT PhD student, Trump designed the power supply for Robert Van de Graaff's first high-voltage generator. He then invented a compact version for hospital use. During World War II, Trump contributed to the development of radar by allied forces. In 1940, he joined the newly formed National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) as technical aide to Karl Compton, president of MIT. He became secretary of the NDRC's Microwave Committee in 1942, where he helped establish the MIT Radiation Laboratory. From 1944 until the end of the war in Europe, he directed the British Branch of the Radiation Lab, coordinating radar development efforts between the US and UK.

As an MIT professor, Trump pursued useful applications of "supervoltage generators." He developed rotational radiation therapy using high-voltage x-rays, which advanced cancer treatment techniques by allowing deeper tumor targeting. He co-founded the High Voltage Engineering Corporation (HVE) in 1946, which manufactured particle accelerators for cancer clinics and scientific research laboratories worldwide. HVE became the earliest successful investment of the American Research and Development Corporation, the first public venture capital fund. In his later career, Trump conducted federally-funded research on food sterilization and wastewater treatment using electron-beam technology.

President Ronald Reagan awarded Trump the National Medal of Science in Engineering Sciences in 1983 for his contributions to "the beneficial application of ionizing radiation." He received war service commendations from both President Harry Truman and King George VI. His inventions are preserved in the Boston Museum of Science and the Smithsonian Institution, and the particle accelerators he helped design remain in use at national laboratories.

Early life and education

=New York years (1907–1931)=

Born in the Bronx, New York City, on August 21, 1907, John Trump was the youngest of three children born to German immigrants Frederick and Elizabeth Christ Trump. When the Queensboro Bridge was finished in 1910, the family moved to Queens, eventually settling in the Woodhaven neighborhood.{{cite book |last=Blair |first=Gwenda |title=The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire |year=2000 |publisher=Simon & Schuester |location=New York |isbn=9780743210799}} At age 11, his father died in the 1918 influenza pandemic, leaving his mother to support the family.{{cite web |last=Blair |first=Gwenda |title=Friedrich Trump Establishes a Dynasty |date=7 February 2018 |website=The Gotham Center for New York City History |url=https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/friedrich-trump-establishes-a-dynasty |access-date=1 April 2025}}

Like his siblings, Trump attended Richmond Hill High School, where he was a gifted student. He joined Western Electric's Manhattan engineering office in 1923, two years before it became known as Bell Labs.{{cite web |title=Vignettes of Early Radiation Workers |date=1978 |url=https://infinite.mit.edu/video/vignettes-early-radiation-workers-1978 |access-date=29 March 2025}}

Both John Trump and his brother Fred joined their family real estate firm, and their mother hoped that Fred would build homes and John design them. Trump enrolled at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn to study architecture. The brothers' work together ended due to differences in business philosophy: John disagreed with Fred's strategy of pre-selling units, preferring to sell once they were finished. By the end of his freshman year, John left the family real estate business and switched his concentration from architecture to engineering.

Trump received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1929 as valedictorian.{{cite book |title=Polywog Yearbook Class of 1929 |year=1929|publisher=Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn |location=Brooklyn, New York |url=https://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/Polytechnic_Institute_Brooklyn_Polywog_Yearbook/1929/Page_100.html |access-date=29 March 2025}} While teaching electrical engineering at his alma mater, he earned his master's degree in physics from Columbia University's graduate school in 1931.{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=William |date=19 October 2018 |title=A profile of John Trump, Donald's oft-mentioned scientist uncle |url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.4.20181019a/abs/ |journal=Physics Today |issue=10 |page=30972 |language=EN |doi=10.1063/PT.6.4.20181019a |bibcode=2018PhT..2018j0972T |s2cid=240036168 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230325232208/https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.4.20181019a/full/ |archive-date=2023-03-25}}{{cite journal |last=Cantwell |first=J.G. |title=John G. Trump, 1960 Lamme Medalist |journal=Electrical Engineering |pages=596–600 |date=August 1961 |volume=80 |issue=8 |doi=10.1109/EE.1961.6433377 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6433377 |access-date=19 March 2025 |url-access=subscription}}

=MIT doctorate (1931–1933)=

In 1931, Trump enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue doctoral training, expecting to work in traditional engineering. When he arrived, MIT's leadership was focused on building the institute's reputation in basic physics.{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Philip N. |title= A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT |date=2011 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |chapter= “All knowledge his sphere”: Karl Taylor Compton, 1887–1954 |pages=355–429 |doi=10.7551/mitpress/8361.003.0011|isbn=978-0-262-29540-6 }} Vannevar Bush, dean of MIT's engineering school, advised Trump to work with the young physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff, who was recently recruited to MIT to improve his newly invented electrostatic generator.{{cite book |last1=Wildes |first1=Karl L. |last2=Lindgren |first2=Nilo A. |title=A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982 |year=1985 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |page=162 |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6275956 |chapter=Chapter 10: The High-Voltage Research Laboratory: John G. Trump |isbn=978-0-262-29103-3 |chapter-url-access=subscription}} Particle physicists around the world were running breakthrough experiments with high-voltage generators, and MIT's leadership sought to demonstrate a megavoltage model of Van de Graaff's prototype. Scaling up would require a high-power vacuum. To power the vacuum cylinder, Trump designed a synchronous alternating-current motor that was assembled in an MIT machine shop.

File:Round Hill van de Graaff generator 1.png

Using Trump's motor, the {{convert|43|ft|m|adj=on}} experimental generator was successfully demonstrated at Round Hill in November 1933.{{cite journal |last=Furfari |first=F.A. |title=A history of the Van de Graaff generator |journal=IEEE Industry Applications Magazine |date=January 2005 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=10–14 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1380320 |doi=10.1109/MIA.2005.1380320 |access-date=13 April 2025}} {{cite newspaper |title=Man Hurls Bolts of 7,000,000 Volts |newspaper=New York Times |date=29 November 1933 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/11/29/archives/man-hurls-bolt-of-7000000-volts-direct-current-lightning-is.html |access-date=13 April 2025}} Proven effective and safe, the Round Hill generator was returned to MIT's campus in 1937. When MIT built a cyclotron, the generator was moved to the new building of the Boston Museum of Science, where it remains in educational use today.

Trump received his doctorate of electrical engineering in 1933. His thesis, "Vacuum Electrostatic Engineering," examined the factors governing voltage-insulation strength in vacuums.{{cite thesis |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/32556?show=full |title=Vacuum electrostatic engineering |last=Trump |first=John G. |institution=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |degree=Sc.D |year=1933 |hdl=1721.1/32556 |oclc=434565313}} In addition to his work on motor design, his dissertation showed how insulated vacuum lines could be used for low-loss, long-distance transmission of direct current. In 1932, Van de Graaff filed to patent components in the transmission system they developed, and Trump filed a further transmission patent in 1937, his first.{{cite journal |last=Owens |first=Larry |title=MIT and the Federal "Angel": Academic R & D and Federal-Private Cooperation before World War II |journal=ISIS |volume=81 |issue=2 |year=1990 |pages=188–213 |doi=10.1086/355334 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/355334 |access-date=31 March 2025}} Federal government interest in Trump and Van de Graaff's transmission system prompted MIT to develop a patent policy, one of first to allow universities to benefit when scientific discoveries were found to have profitable commercial uses.

Career

=Early applied research (1935–1941)=

After graduating, Trump remained at MIT as a research associate, then became an assistant professor in 1936.{{cite book |last=Smullin |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Smullin |chapter=John George Trump |title=Memorial Tributes |volume=3 |publisher=National Academies Press |doi=10.17226/1384 |chapter-url=http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1384&page=333 |access-date=2016-12-24 |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-309-03939-0}} His research focused on improving high-voltage generators and finding new uses for them in industry.{{cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Denis M. |title=John George Trump |date=1985 |journal = Physics Today |volume=38 |issue=9 |pages=90–92 |doi=10.1063/1.2814707|bibcode=1985PhT....38i..90R }}

In 1932, Trump learned about an MIT lecture by radiologist George W. Holmes on medical uses of high-voltage x-rays.{{cite journal |last=Schulz |first=Milford D |title=The Supervoltage Story |date=August 1975 |journal=The American Journal of Roentgenology |volume=124 |issue=4 |pages=540–559 |url=https://www.ajronline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2214/ajr.124.4.540 |doi=10.2214/ajr.124.4.540 |access-date=29 March 2025}} Prevailing low-voltage radiotherapy techniques could only target superficial tissues and required long exposures that damaged skin.{{cite book |last1=Suit |first1=Herman D |last2=Loeffler |first2=Jay S |chapter=Radiation Oncology and the MGH 1896–1945 |title=Evolution of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital |year=2011 |publisher=Springer |pages=13–27 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-6744-2 |isbn=978-1-4419-6743-5 |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-1-4419-6744-2.pdf |access-date=29 March 2025}} Because Van de Graaff generators produced steadier high-voltage power than transformer-based generators, Trump hypothesized they could produce penetrating x-rays that could target deeper tumors.

In May 1935, Trump showed that MIT's Van de Graaff generators could produce abundant x-rays. He received a $25,000 grant from the Godfrey M. Hyams Trust to build a 1-megavolt (MV) generator for Boston's Huntington Memorial Hospital, a cancer treatment center.{{cite journal |last=Dresser |first=Richard |title=Further Observations on the Use of Three-Million-Volt Roentgen Therapy |journal=Radiology |year=1948 |volume=50 |issue=5 |pages=645–648 |doi=10.1148/50.5.645 |pmid=18917107 |url=https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/50.5.645 |url-access=subscription}} In March 1937, Trump's x-ray generator entered service at Huntington. With a room-sized voltage terminal and a long vacuum-insulated focusing coil snaking into the treatment room, Trump's machine was described as a "magnificent monster" by one of its operators. Doctors reported that it provided "increased depth dosages, greater skin sparing, and greater intensity."{{cite book |last1=Weinhous |first1=Martin S |last2=Brady |first2=Luther W. |chapter=Developments in Technology |title=A History of the Radiological Sciences: Radiation Oncology |editor1-last=Gagliardi |editor1-first=Raymond |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first= J. Frank |year=1996 |publisher= American Roentgen Ray Society |pages=43–85 |chapter-url=http://www.arrs.org/publications/HRS/oncology/RCI_O_c03.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509180846/https://www.arrs.org/publications/HRS/oncology/RCI_O_c03.pdf |archive-date=9 May 2015}} The first patient it treated for skin cancer survived beyond four years. However, Huntington Hospital survived only another four years, and the machine was shut down in 1941. The generator was moved to the collections at Harvard's Countway Library.

Using pressurized gas, Trump made new generators smaller than the original, air-insulated models. He built a compact 1.25-MV generator for Massachusetts General Hospital in 1940, which treated patients for sixteen years. Trump's pre-war x-ray experiments have been acknowledged as precursors to the field of radiosurgery.{{cite journal |last1=Murali |first1=Raj |last2=Oestreich |first2=Herbert |title=Radiosurgery Before Dr. Leksell |journal=Journal of Neurosurgery |date=June 2015 |pages=A1569 |doi=10.3171/2015.6.JNS.AANS2014abstracts |volume=122 |issue=6 |url=https://thejns.org/view/journals/j-neurosurg/122/6/article-pA1520.xml?tab_body=pdf-32452}}

With World War II engulfing Europe and Asia, the United States military began expanding its fleet production. Trump investigated practical applications of x-rays in military industry. With Carlton G. Lutts, an engineer at Boston Navy Yard, Trump discovered that his high-voltage generator could detect manufacturing defects in ships and aircraft.

=War years (1941–1945)=

During World War II, Trump shifted his research from medical uses of x-rays to military uses of microwaves, focusing on the development of radar. During 1940, he joined the newly formed National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) as technical aide to Karl Compton, president of MIT, who was serving also as the chairman of the radar division within the NDRC.

During 1942, Trump became secretary of the microwave committee, a sub-committee of the NDRC. The director of the microwave committee was Alfred Lee Loomis, the "millionaire physicist," who decided to create a laboratory. He{{who|date=April 2025}} selected a site for it, chose a suitably discreet and ambiguous name for it, and funded its construction, until governmental administration was established.{{cn|date=March 2025}} The new institution came to be called the MIT Radiation Laboratory, or the "Rad Lab." As wartime shortages in Britain increased, many of its radar researchers would move to the well-funded laboratory at MIT, where they helped create groundbreaking progress in developing practical devices and systems, which would see widespread field deployment in combat.

The British had already started researching radar, which they termed Radio Direction Finder (RDF). Their Tizard Mission to the US showed how much more advanced they were with some of the key technologies, particularly the magnetron. The US decided to send a team to Britain to help coordinate their efforts with the "British Branch of the Radiation Laboratory" (BBRL), which operated as a department of Britain's Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at Malvern, in Worcestershire. From February 1944 to the end of the war in Europe, Trump was the director of the BBRL.{{cite web |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030004453 |title=Private Papers of Dr J G Trump (Documents.4461) |website=Imperial War Museum |date=1999-02-22 |access-date=2016-12-24}}

File:Trump duBridge 1945 cropped.png at the end of WWII]]

In January 1943, Trump was asked by the U.S. Office of Alien Property Custodian to examine the notes, papers, and artifacts left by the inventor Nikola Tesla, who had died two days prior.{{cite book |last=Carlson |first=W. Bernard |title=Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age |chapter=Visionary to the End |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2015 |doi=10.1515/9781400846559-018 |isbn=978-0691165615 |pages=392–393}} U.S. government officials expected the papers might contain designs for Tesla's promised high-voltage weapons, and they were reluctant to let Tesla's nephew bring them to Yugoslavia.{{cite web |last1=Glenn |first1=Jim |last2=Cheney |first2=Margaret |title=Tesla: The Missing Papers |url=https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html |publisher=PBS |access-date=5 July 2012}} After a three-day investigation, Trump reported that none of the materials would have "significant value to this country" nor would they "constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands." Trump concluded that Tesla's late-career projects were primarily promotional, writing that they "did not include new sound workable principles or methods."

During the war, Trump also served in the Advisory Specialist Group on Radar, advising USAAF General Carl Spaatz on navigational radar, precision-bombing radar, and also defenses against the German radars found in their night-fighters and in their flak units. The systems included: Gee, Oboe, LORAN, H2X, MEW & SCR-584. Trump worked with all the most important British radar experts, including Sir Robert Watson-Watt, A.P. Rowe, and Bernard Lovell. At the end of the war, Trump also conducted debriefing interviews with Germany's main radar technicians.{{clarify|date=March 2025|reason=Were technicians, lead scientists, or both interviewed? Each would give different types of information. Thomas's book implied company leaders who may not be engineers. Unable to access material housed at the Imperial War Museum in London.}}{{Cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=XbQICAAAQBAJ}} |title=Rational Action: The Sciences of Policy in Britain and America, 1940-1960 |last=Thomas |first=William |date=2015-04-10 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-02850-9 |language=en |page=79 |via=Google Books}}

Trump received recognition for his war-work partnership from both the United States and the United Kingdom.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/26/us/john-trump-dies-engineer-was-78.html |title=John Trump Dies; Engineer Was 78 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1985-02-26 |access-date=2016-12-24 |url-access=subscription}}

=Post-war cancer research (1946–1973)=

After the war, Trump returned to MIT and was appointed director of High Voltage Research Laboratory, a lab pursuing industrial applications of electrostatic energy. Building upon his pre-war collaboration with area hospitals, Trump focused on applying high-voltage engineering to medical challenges, particularly cancer treatment.

Months after the war ended, Trump began work with his Huntington colleagues to treat cancer patients at a 3-MV generator building on MIT's campus.{{cite magazine |last=Trump |first=John G |title=Roentgen Rays against Cancer |date=December 1947 |magazine=The Technology Review |pages=91–95 |volume=50 |number=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/MIT-Technology-Review-1947-12/page/n21/mode/2up |via=Internet Archive}} Having discovered a way to reach deep-seated cancer lesions while sparing intervening tissues, he worked on methods to improve targeting. Trump designed an apparatus to rotate the patient around the beam, allowing x-rays to be cross-fired at the tumor site.{{cite news| title = Supervoltage machines| newspaper = Fortune | date = April 1950 | volume = 41 | pages = 113–120 | url = https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bpr&AN=517321845&site=ehost-live&scope=site |access-date= 30 March 2025}} The groundbreaking technique, known as "rotational radiation therapy," remains widely used in radiotherapy.

In 1949, Trump began a two-decade collaboration with the Lahey Clinic, Boston's leading cancer hospital.{{cite news |title=John G. Trump, 77; Pioneered Radiation in Medicine, Technology |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=23 February 1985 |page=24}}{{cite journal |title=School of Engineering - Electrical Engineering |last1=Hazen |first1=Harold L. |author-link1=Harold Locke Hazen |last2=Tucker |first2=Carlton E. |name-list-style=amp |date=October 1949 |journal=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin: President's Report Issue |volume=85 |number=1 |page=123 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240730222911/https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/59032 |url=https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/59032 |access-date=3 April 2025 |archive-date=30 July 2024 |url-status=live}} Over the next 22 years, over 500 cancer patients a year received treatment at MIT using Trump's x-ray generator.{{cite web |title=Press Release |author=MIT Office of Public Relations |date=7 January 1970 |website=MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections |url=https://cdn.libraries.mit.edu/dissemination/diponline/AC0069_NewReleases/NewsRelease_1970/AC0069_1970/AC0069_197001_006.pdf |access-date=29 March 2025}} Trump supervised treatments, improved targeting techniques, and personally trained many doctors in their use. For many years, he taught radiation physics to early-career doctors.{{cite magazine |title=Lamme Award To Be Presented for 1960 to Dr. J.G. Trump, MIT Professor |magazine=Electrical Engineering |publisher=IEEE |date=May 1961 |page=365 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6433256 |access-date=3 April 2025}} The lab also focused on skin cancer treatment, designing a 5-MV electron-beam generator for targeting superficial lesions.

File:John Trump in radiotherapy machine c1950.png

Despite earlier advances in supervoltage (>1MeV) generators, few hospitals had introduced high-voltage cancer treatment by the 1940s. Trump received many requests from hospitals for his generator, and he oversaw a commercialization effort to meet demand. He designed a compact, low-cost 2-MV Van de Graaff generator, then founded a firm to build them. Between 1948 and 1969, the High Voltage Engineering Corporation manufactured 43 of these 2-MV machines, which treated as many as 1,000 patients a day in the United States alone.

By the time Trump was appointed full professor in 1952, his cancer research devices had received worldwide attention. He attracted support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, each of which were building major cancer research operations. His 1960 Lamme Medal citation, given for his major contributions to electrical engineering, took time to praise his stature among radiologists and observed that Trump had "remain[ed] faithful to his original goals in the treatment of malignant diseases." In 1963, Trump was appointed to the board of the Lahey Clinic, and became its chair after retiring his professorship in 1973. Throughout this period, he published widely in radiology and scientific instrument journals.

Compact Van de Graaff machines were among the earliest x-ray machines that could target deep tumors with precision. However, their voltages were effectively limited to 3–4 MeV, restricting their targeting depth and extending the required duration of treatment. A 1968 global census of radiotherapy devices showed that they were being eclipsed by linear accelerators. Trump's innovations influenced this next generation of higher-voltage radiotherapy devices. Ed Ginzton, who built the first medical linear accelerator in 1956, assembled it inside the housing of Trump's 2-MeV model and borrowed its rotational setup.{{cite book | author1-first = David | author1-last = Hussey| author2-first = Roger | author2-last = Robison | author3-first = Martin | author3-last = Colman | author4-first = David | author4-last = Larson | author5-first = Gustavo | author5-last = Montana | author6-first = Beth | author6-last = Bukata | author7-first = Bill | author7-last = Beck | title = ASTRO: A Celebration of 50 Years | publisher = Donning Company Publishers | location = Virginia Beach, VA | year = 2008 | url = https://www.astro.org/ASTRO/media/ASTRO/About%20ASTRO/PDFs/ASTRO_50thAnniversaryBook.pdf | isbn = 978-1-57864-515-2 |page=15}} "Linacs"—which have greater beam stability, smaller forms, and substantially higher voltages than their predecessors—are now the most prevalent devices for deep tumor radiotherapy.

=High Voltage Engineering Corporation=

File:Robinson Trump van de Graaff HVEC accelerator cropped.png

In 1946, Trump approached MIT President Karl Compton about commercializing his 2-MeV generator for hospital use. Compton had championed the Van de Graaff generator's development since the 1930s and Trump's proposal aligned with his post-war ambitions. Compton had recently co-founded the American Research and Development Corporation (ARD), the first closed-end venture capital fund, focused on forming new American industries from high-tech research.{{citation |last1=Hsu |first1=David H. |last2=Kenney |first2=Martin |title=Organizing Venture Capital: The Rise and Demise of American Research & Development Corporation, 1946–1973 |journal=Industrial and Corporate Change |pages=579–616 |date=June 2005 |volume=14 |issue=4 |doi=10.1093/icc/dth064}}{{cite web |last=MacDonald |first=Katie |title=Venture Capital |date=2012 |website=Cambridge Historical Society |url=https://historycambridge.org/innovation/Venture%20Capital.html |access-date=1 April 2025}} ARD's leadership offered Trump $200,000 to start the High Voltage Engineering Corporation (HVE), and Compton provided an exclusive license to MIT's Van de Graaff patents. HVE would become the second start-up backed by ARD, and later its first successful investment.

HVE's original leadership consisted of Trump, Van de Graff, and Dennis Robinson, a British engineer Trump met through the Rad Lab whom he recruited as HVE's chief executive.{{Cite thesis |last=Fenner |first=Edward |title=Smashing Atoms and Expectations: Entrepreneurial Science and the Dawn of Publicly-Funded High-Tech Venture Capital at Robert J. Van de Graaff's High Voltage Engineering Corporation |type=MA thesis |publisher=York University |location=Toronto |date=2014-08-13 |department=Science and Technology Studies |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344418602}} Trump, who held a 13.3 percent stake in the firm, served as its founding chairman and technical director. Working out of a Cambridge parking garage, HVE initially built Trump's compact Van de Graaff for hospitals. Although the 2-MeV machines sold immediately, they faced competitive threats from other radiotherapy technologies like colbalt-60 machines.

Growing federal support for nuclear science enabled HVE to invest in a higher-margin product: research particle accelerators for university and government labs.{{cite news| last = Goodman| first = G. J.| title = Risk and reward: American research & development corp. should pay off some day| newspaper = Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly| date = 1957 | volume = 37| issue = 23 | pages = 5| url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/350342907 |access-date=30 March 2025| id = {{ProQuest|350342907}}}} Initially, its 2-MeV hospital accelerator found customers in nuclear science, and orders came from the Naval Research Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and European universities. In 1955, HVE was contracted to design a pioneering 5-MeV tandem accelerator for Chalk River Laboratories in Ottawa. The firm invested heavily in building higher-power tandem machines, and Trump and Van de Graaff supplied ideas for increasing their scale and voltage.{{cite magazine |last=Metz |first=William D |title=High Voltage Engineering: Accelerating Away from Science |date=14 July 1972 |magazine=Science |volume=177 |number=4044 |pages=151–153 |jstor=1734822 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1734822 |access-date=30 March 2025}} HVE would manufacture a further 55 tandem accelerators for research labs around the world.{{cite book | last1 = Hellborg | first1 = Ragnar | last2 = Whitlow | first2 = Harry J| chapter = History of electrostatic accelerators| title = The Electrostatic Accelerator: A Versatile Tool | publisher = Morgan & Claypool Publishers | date = March 2019 | pages = 31–38 |doi=10.1088/2053-2571/aaea76ch3 | isbn = 978-1-64327-356-3 |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/book/mono/978-1-64327-356-3/chapter/bk978-1-64327-356-3ch3#bk978-1-64327-356-3ch3fig3 |access-date=30 March 2025}} The firm's largest and last successful model, the "MP" or "emperor tandem," debuted in 1963. HVE tandem accelerators were prized for their precision, maintainability, and easy-to-upgrade design.

In the scientific particle accelerators business, HVE had little competition, high net earnings, and a full book of orders through the late 1950s. Setting up a production plant in Burlington, Massachusetts, HVE grew to over 1,400 employees and built at least 500 generators across all models.{{cite news| last = Bottorff | first = Dana | title = A Turnaround as Much as a Takeover | newspaper = New England Business| volume = 11| issue = 4 | date = April 1989| pages = 20 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/226930264/sem-2 |access-date=30 March 2025}}{{cite web |title=February 12, 1935: Patent granted for Van de Graaff generator |website=American Physical Society |date=February 2011 |url=https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/201102/physicshistory.cfm |access-date=19 March 2025}} By 1957, it had provided a ten-fold return to early investors. HVE was ARD's most successful investment for its first decade and effectively assured the fund's survival.

HVE remained profitable into the late 1960s, when federal funding for accelerator purchases fell. Thereafter, the company was beset with product development issues and competitive threats. Labs reported operational problems with HVE's emperor tandem and began eyeing competitors' models. The firm placed its bets on building Van de Graaff's enormous 20-MeV "transuranium accelerator," but the Atomic Energy Commission refused to fund its purchase. Van de Graaff died in 1967, leaving the firm without its famed scientist. HVE's MIT leadership began leaving active management, though Trump provided technical advice until 1978. After 1971, National Electrostatics Corporation, a competing firm founded by an HVE employee, booked all orders for tandem accelerators. Under new leadership, HVE sold its Burlington plant, divested from the accelerator business, and focused on its conglomerate businesses that manufactured smaller industrial products.

Holding HVE shares until his death, Trump made no personal fortune from the firm's years of profitability. Several years after Trump's death, HVE accepted a buyout from a South African private equity firm. Denis Robinson, its first chief executive, said the real estate Trump convinced HVE to buy on Massachusetts Route 128 would later sell at a value as high as many years of HVE's profits.{{r|thomas-2018}}

=Wastewater experiments (1974–1985)=

In 1972, Congress passed new Clean Water Act standards for secondary treatment of wastewater discharged into oceans and waterways. New rules gave cities five years to make major upgrades to sewage treatment.{{cite report |last=Getz |first=Laura |title=Clean Water Act: A Summary of the Law |publisher=Congressional Research Service |location=Washington DC |url=https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL30030 |date=18 October 2016 |access-date=24 March 2025}} Trump, who had longstanding interests in sterilization methods, initiated a new program at MIT concentrated on disinfecting wastewater. He researched using an electron beam from a 2-MeV accelerator as the deactivating agent in the treatment of municipal wastewater sludge. The High Voltage Research Laboratory developed a prototype system that was tested at Boston's Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant, and it was able to provide bacterial and viral disinfection via continuous on-line treatment.{{Cite web|title=Collection: John G. Trump papers |url=https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/752|website=MIT ArchivesSpace |access-date=2020-04-30}}

Trump retired from his faculty appointment in 1973, but continued to running wastewater experiments and teaching MIT students as a senior lecturer. He directed the High Voltage Research Laboratory until stepping down in 1980. Trump remained engaged in wastewater research until the year of his death.

Trump died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 21, 1985.{{cite web|url=http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~edubois/acad_gen/ |title=Eric Dubois: Academic Genealogy |website=University of Ottawa |first=Eric |last=Dubois |access-date=2016-12-24}}

=Science education=

Trump became a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science in 1961.{{cite news |title=Local Residents On Science Museum Corporation Board |newspaper=Winchester Star |date=6 July 1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/WinStar_070661_092861/page/n11/mode/2up |volume=80 |number=44 |page=12 |via=Internet Archive}} When the museum installed the original Van de Graff generator as a permanent exhibition, he designed electrostatic shielding that allowed live audience demonstrations. He became a life trustee of the museum.

Legacy

Trump received the 1983 National Medal of Science in Engineering Sciences for his "introduction of new methods for the beneficial application of ionizing radiation in medicine, industry and atomic physics."{{cite web |title=John G. Trump |url=https://nationalmedals.org/laureate/john-g-trump/ |website=National Science & Technology Medals Foundation |access-date=13 March 2025}} The White House held a ceremony for the medalists on February 27, 1985, six days after Trump's death. His son, John Jr., accepted the medal from U.S. President Ronald Reagan.{{cite AV media |date=27 February 1985 |title=President Reagan's Remarks at the National Medal of Science Awards on February 27, 1985 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPOOK0iu9js&t=423s |format=Video recording |language=English |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Ronald Ronald Reagan Presidential Library |access-date=13 March 2025 |via=YouTube}} In a posthumous tribute, the National Academy of Engineering described John Trump as "a pioneer in the scientific, engineering and medical applications of high voltage machinery."

During his career, Trump tested dual uses of high-voltage radiation during war, worked on the development of military radar, and sold particle accelerators to military research labs. Some collaborators have contended that Trump declined to use his work for offensive weapons. James Melcher, HVEL's 1970s lab director, gave an interview stating: "John, over a period of three decades, would be approached by people of all sorts because he could make megavolt beams of ions and electrons – death rays... What did he do with it? Cancer research, sterilizing sludge out in Deer Island, all sorts of wondrous things. He didn't touch the weapons stuff."{{cite news |last=Kaplan |first=Fred |title=Q & A on opposition to "Star Wars" |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=14 May 1986 |page=17 |url=https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/image/438803223/ |access-date=3 April 2025 }}{{cite magazine |url=http://science-for-the-people.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SftPv20n1s.pdf |title=Scientists Who Have Said No |date=January–February 1988 |magazine=Science for the People |volume=20 |number=1 |page=25 |access-date=2016-11-04}}

Trump's research with Boston hospitals made lasting contributions to cancer treatment. The radiation oncology building of the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, formerly the Lahey Clinic, is named for Trump. In 2024, one of his scientific collaborators endowed a fund at Lahey for diagnostic radiation named for Trump.{{cite web |title=Grateful donors plan for Lahey's future |website=Beth Israel Lahey Hospital |date=2024 |url=https://giving.bilh.org/laheyhospitalmedicalcenter/philanthropy-news/giving-back-looking-forward/ |access-date=6 March 2025}}

Trump held his professorship for 37 years, appointed at age 27 and retiring at MIT's then-mandatory retirement age of 65. He remained on MIT's faculty as a senior lecturer for another twelve years. Although Donald Trump has frequently claimed his uncle was the longest serving professor in the history of MIT, this is not accurate.{{cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-trump-claims-uncle-longest-serving-professor-mit-1864991 |title=Fact Check: Trump Claims His Uncle Was 'Longest Serving Professor' at MIT |last=Norton |first=Tom |date=January 30, 2024 |website=Newsweek |access-date=2024-07-28}} Julius Stratton, who joined MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering eight years before Trump, retired in 1966 after 38 years as an MIT professor.{{cite web |title= Stratton, Julius Adams, 1901-1994 |website=MIT Archives |url=https://archivesspace.mit.edu/agents/people/99 |access-date=13 March 2025}} Nevertheless, Trump's young appointment as professor allowed him to serve nearly the maximum possible tenure under MIT's retirement policies. Congress prohibited mandatory faculty retirement in 1986, allowing later professors to serve longer careers.{{cite book| title = Ending Mandatory Retirement for Tenured Faculty: The Consequences for Higher Education| editor1-first = P. Brett | editor1-last = Hammond | editor2-first = Harriet P. | editor2-last = Morgan | publisher = National Academy Press | location = Washington, D.C. | year = 1991 | doi = 10.17226/1795| isbn = 978-0-309-04498-1 }}

Personal life

John G. Trump was a member of the Trump family. He married Elora Sauerbrun (1913–1983), and they had three children: John Gordon Trump (1938–2012) of Watertown, Massachusetts; Christine Philp (1942–2021) of New London, New Hampshire; and Karen Ingraham of Los Alamos, New Mexico; and six grandchildren.{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?pid=160130064 |title=John Gordon Trump |date=September 27, 2012 |website=Legacy.com |publisher=The Boston Globe |access-date=December 12, 2016}}

The Trumps lived in Winchester, Massachusetts and were members of the Winchester Unitarian Society.{{cite news |last=Westner |first=Joyce |title=Donald Trump's uncle John G. Trump once lived in Winchester |date=September 24, 2024 |url=https://winchesternews.org/20240927donald-trumps-uncle-john-g-trump-once-lived-in-winchester/ |access-date=6 March 2025 |work=Winchester News}}

Awards and honors

Trump received a number of awards including:

1947: The King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom (KMS), given by George VI
1948: The President's Certificate of Merit, presented by Harry S. Truman
1950: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences{{cite web |title=John George Trump |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/john-george-trump |access-date=21 March 2025}}
1960: The Lamme Medal, given by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
1983: The National Medal of Science for Engineering Sciences{{cite web |url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=363 |title=The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details |website=National Science Foundation |access-date=2016-12-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314091709/http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=363 |archive-date=2016-03-14 }}

Selected publications

Trump wrote approximately 100 peer-reviewed articles, published across journals in applied physics, nuclear science, radiology and medicine, scientific instruments, and environmental engineering.

=Dissertation=

{{cite thesis |title=Vacuum electrostatic engineering |degree=Sc.D |institution=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering |year=1933 |hdl=1721.1/32556 |first=John G. |last=Trump |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/32556}}

=Journal articles=

{{cite journal |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |author1-mask=— —, |last2=Merrill |first2=F.H. |last3=Safford |first3=F.J. |title=Van de Graaff generator for general laboratory use |journal=Review of Scientific Instruments |volume=9 |issue=12 |pages=398–403 |date=December 1938 |doi=10.1063/1.1752376|bibcode=1938RScI....9..398T }}
{{cite journal |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |author1-mask=– – with |last2=Andrias |first2=James|title=High-voltage D-C Flashover of Solid Insulators in Compressed Nitrogen |year=1941 |journal=Electrical Engineering |volume=60 |issue=11 |pages=986–989 |doi=10.1109/EE.1941.6434541}}
{{cite journal |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |author1-mask=– – |title=Electrostatic Sources of Electric Power |journal= Electrical Engineering |year=1947 |volume=66 |issue=6 |pages=525–534 |doi=10.1109/EE.1947.6443559}}
{{cite journal |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |author1-mask=– – with |last2=Van de Graaf |first2=Robert J. |title=The Insulation of High Voltages in Vacuum |year=1947 |journal=Journal of Applied Physics |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=327–332 |doi=10.1063/1.1697654|bibcode=1947JAP....18..327T }}
{{cite journal |last1=Schumb |first1=Walter C. |last2=Trump |first2=John G. |last3=Priest |first3=Grace L. |title=Effect of High Voltage Electrical Discharges on Sulfur Hexafluoride |journal=Industrial & Engineering Chemistry |year=1949 |volume=41 |issue=7 |pages=1348–1349 |doi=10.1021/ie50475a012}}
{{cite journal |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |author1-mask=— —, |last2=Wright |first2=K.A. |last3=Evans |first3=W.W. |last4=Anson |first4=J.H. |last5=Hare |first5=H.F. |last6=Fromer |first6=J.L. |last7=Jacque |first7=G. |last8=Horne |first8=K.W. |title=High Energy Electrons for the Treatment of Extensive Superficial Malignant Lesions |journal=American Journal of Roentgenology |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=623–629 |date=1953 |pmid=13030918}}
{{cite journal |last1=Cloud |first1=Robert W. |last2=Beckman |first2=Lars |last3=Trump |first3=John G. |title=Barium Absorption Pumps for High-Vacuum Systems |year=1957 |journal=Review of Scientific Instruments |volume=28 |issue=11 |pages=889–892 |doi=10.1063/1.1715756|bibcode=1957RScI...28..889C }}
{{cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Kenneth A |last2=Trump |first2=John G. |title=Back-Scattering of Megavolt Electrons from Thick Targets |year=1962 |journal=Journal of Applied Physics |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=687–690 |doi=10.1063/1.1702488|bibcode=1962JAP....33..687W }}
{{cite journal |last=Trump |first=John G. |author1-mask=– – |title=New Developments in High Voltage Technology |journal=IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science |date=1967 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=113–121 |doi=10.1109/TNS.1967.4324534|bibcode=1967ITNS...14..113T }}
{{cite journal |last1=Diessner |first1=Armin |last2=Trump |first2=John G. |title=Free Conducting Particles in a Coaxial Compressed-Gas-Insulated System |year=1970 |journal=Journal of Applied Physics |volume=89 |issue=8 |pages=1970–1978 |doi=10.1109/TPAS.1970.292781|bibcode=1970ITPAS..89.1970D }}
{{cite journal |last=Trump |first=John G. |author-mask=— — |title=Disinfection of Municipal Sludge by High-Energy Electrons |journal=Pollution Engineering |volume=10 |issue=9 |pages=49–51 |year=1978}}
{{cite journal |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |author-mask=— — |last2=Merrill |first2=E.W. |last3=Wright |first3=K.A. |title=Disinfection of Sewage Wastewater and Sludge by Electron Treatment |journal=Radiation Physics and Chemistry |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=55–66 |year=1984 |doi=10.1016/0146-5724(84)90007-4|bibcode=1984RaPC...24...55T }}

=Reports=

{{cite report |title=Final Report on the MIT Project in High-Voltage Radiography |year=1945 |volume=1–4 |publisher=U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development |osti=4434017 |id=OSRD 4488 |url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4434017}}
{{cite report |title=Five Years at the Radiation Laboratory |year=1946 |publisher=MIT Radiation Laboratory |location=Cambridge, MA |osti=4434017 |oclc=230425018 |url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4434017}}
{{cite report |last1=Trump |first1=John G. |last2=Wright |first2=Kenneth A. |title=Sterilization of Blood Plasma and Fractions with High Energy Electrons. Progress Report to National Institutes of Health |publisher=U. S. Public Health Service |date=July 1953}}
High Voltage Laboratory Progress Report (1965), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
{{Cite report |title=High Energy Electron Radiation of Wastewater Liquid Residuals: A Report to the National Science Foundation |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |year=1977 |location= Cambridge, MA |oclc=30710419 |url=https://inis.iaea.org/records/agxxa-7wq92/files/12641938.pdf |via=IAEA}}

=Essays=

{{cite magazine |last=Trump |first=John G. |author-mask=—— |title=Roentgen Rays against Cancer |date=December 1947 |magazine=The Technology Review |pages=91–95 |volume=50 |number=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/MIT-Technology-Review-1947-12/page/n21/mode/2up}}
{{cite journal |last=Trump |first=John G. |author-mask=—— |title=Supervoltage Radiation Therapy in the Next Decade |journal=Surgical Clinics of North America |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=839–848 |year=1960 |doi=10.1016/S0039-6109(16)36109-6|pmid=13839571 }}
{{cite magazine |last=Trump |first=John G. |author-mask=—— |title=Energized Electrons Tackle Municipal Sludge |date=1971 |magazine=American Scientist |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=276–284 |jstor=27850426}}