Alvin Van Valkenburg, Jr. (12 August 1913,

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

– 5 December 1991,

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

) was an experimental physicist, geologist, geochemist, and inventor, known as one of the four co-inventors of the

diamond anvil cell A diamond anvil cell (DAC) is a high-pressure device used in geology, engineering, and materials science experiments. It permits the compression of a small (sub- millimeter-sized) piece of material to extreme pressures, typically up to around 1 ...

(DAC). (Note: On p. 192 this obituary has the misspelling "John Jamison" instead of "John Jamieson". John Calhoun Jamieson (1924–1983) was a pioneer of high-pressure research and a professor of geophysics and researcher in the Institute for the Study of Metals at the University of Chicago.) Alvin Van Valkenburg, Jr. graduated in 1936 from Schenectady's

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

with a B.S. in geology and in 1938 from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

with an M.S. in mineralogy and petrology. After returning to Schenectady to teach at Union College, he moved to the Boston area, where he worked from 1941 to 1945 at the

Charleston Navy Yard Charleston Naval Shipyard (formerly known as the Charleston Navy Yard) was a U.S. Navy ship building and repair facility located along the west bank of the Cooper River (South Carolina), Cooper River, in North Charleston, South Carolina and p ...

as a physicist in charge of degaussing ships. During WWII he enrolled as a graduate student at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he studied under Percy Bridgman and the mineralogist Esper S. Larsen, Jr. (1879–1961). In 1945 Van Valkenburg became employed at the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...

(NBS) in Washington, DC. From 1945 to 1946 he pursued graduate studies at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. He married Elsie Victoria Erling, whom he met in Washington, on 1 June 1946 at the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Van Valkenburg is generally considered the originator of the practice of placing a washer-shaped

gasket Some seals and gaskets A gasket is a mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more mating surfaces, generally to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while under compression. It is a deformable material that is used to c ...

of extremely thin (about .3 mm) metal foil between the two diamond faces of the DAC. The gasket (made of a metal such as

rhenium Rhenium is a chemical element; it has symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-gray, heavy, third-row transition metal in group 7 of the periodic table. With an estimated average concentration of 1 part per billion (ppb), rhenium is one ...

tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

) flows under ultra-high pressure and fills the central hole with fluid to achieve hydrostatic conditions. The tiny sample to be analyzed is compressed between the two opposing

culet In gemology, a culet is a flat face on the bottom of a gemstone. During the 14th century, after the adoption of the table cut, a further facet was added to the bottom of the cut parallel to the surface of the table. The term used for these b ...

s (tips) of diamond. The gasket is used to maintain the sample's contact with the culets, where the pressure is at a maximum. In 1964 he left the NBS and became employed at the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

(NSF). There he was director of the geochemistry program from 1964 to 1970 and retired in 1974. From 1974 to 1980 he was a guest investigator at the

Geophysical Laboratory The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in Wa ...

. In 1980 he moved to Tucson, Arizona and transferred his small business of manufacturing and selling DACs from Washington, DC to Tucson, where he was a business partner with his son, Eric. In 1986 the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

awarded Van Valkenburg the

John Price Wetherill Medal The John Price Wetherill Medal was an award of the Franklin Institute. It was established with a bequest given by the family of John Price Wetherill (1844–1906) on April 3, 1917. On June 10, 1925, the Board of Managers voted to create a silv ...

for his co-invention of the DAC, which "has revolutionized high pressure research, by allowing static pressures equivalent to that in the earth's core to be produced in the laboratory." Upon his death in 1991 Alvin Van Valkenburg was survived by his widow, his son, two daughters, and two grandchildren. The Gordon Research Conference on High Pressure gives an award named after him.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Valkenburg, Alvin 1913 births 1991 deaths Union College (New York) alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni Experimental physicists 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American inventors High pressure science People from Schenectady, New York