http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/10.2/images/anker_fig03b.jpg
Gerard O'Neill was the creator of the O'Neill Cylinder, but who exactly was he? O'Neill was a U.S physicist, who was a pilot and an astronaut candidate during the Apollo program. His scientific career started as a radar technician in U.S Navy, and from there he went to Swarthmore College for his undergraduate degree, and then to Cornell for his graduate studies in Physics. He received his PhD in 1954 and became a professor at Princeton University. In 1965 he became a full professor, and stayed at Princeton until his retirement in 1985. In 1972 he and his wife founded the Space Studies Institute, who state their mission is to "open the energy and material resources of space for human benefit within our lifetime". It was in 1977 that he wrote his most important work, in regards to O'Neill Cylinders, where he wrote his book "The High Frontier". In 1983 he started the Geostar project, which was an incredibly high speed train system that would outperform many airlines. Sadly, in April of 1992, Gerard O'Neill died after a seven year long battle with Leukemia.
