What is Gerard K. O'Neill?
{{Infobox Scientist |name = Gerard Kitchen O’Neill |image = Gerard Kitchen ONeill.GIF |caption = Gerard K. O’Neill in 1977 |birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1927|2|6}} |birth_place = [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|New York]], [[United States]] |death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1992|4|27|1927|2|6}} |death_place = [[Redwood City, California|Redwood City]], [[California]] |nationality = [[United States]] |field = [[Physicist]] |known_for = [[Particle physics]]<br />[[Space Studies Institute]]<br />[[O'Neill cylinder|O’Neill cylinder]]}} '''Gerard Kitchen “Gerry” O’Neill''' (February 6, 1927–April 27, 1992) was an [[Americans|American]] [[scientist]]. He taught [[physics]] at [[Princeton University]]. He invented a [[machine]] for holding [[subatomic particles]]. He also invented the mass driver, a machine used to [[:wikt:launch|launch]] things into [[outer space]]. He wrote about building [[City|cities]] in space. His [[space station]] design is known as the ''[[O'Neill cylinder|O’Neill cylinder]]''. He started the [[Space Studies Institute]] (SSI). SSI is a group focused on learning about space [[manufacturing]] and [[colonization]]. In 1954 O'Neill finished school at [[Cornell University]]. Then he began his work on [[particle physics]] at Princeton. Two years later he wrote about a [[wikt:device|device]] to hold very fast moving [[subatomic particles]]. In 1965 he used his device to [[wikt:shoot|shoot]] two [[wikt:beam|beam]]s of particles at each other for the first time. This [[experiment]] was done at [[Stanford University]]. Scientists used the experiment to discover the size of the [[electron]]. While he was teaching, O’Neill became excited about humans living in outer space. He wrote about the O’Neill cylinder in “The Colonization of Space”. This was his first paper about people living in space. He met with other scientists at Princeton in 1975. There he talked with them about manufacturing in outer space. O’Neill built his first mass driver with help from scientist [[Henry Kolm]] in 1976. Mass