Later, Allison acquired a 2 MeV Van de Graaff generator, and he recalled an old paper on producing lithium ions from minerals like Eucryptite. This allowed him to produce a 1.2 MeV lithium ion beam. He created hitherto unknown isotopes of boron and other light elements, and measured their neutron capture cross sections. A side effect of this work was a method to analyze surface materials where chemical analysis was unavailable. His colleague Anthony L. Turkevich subsequently used this to analyze the makeup of the Moon on the later Surveyor program missions. Allison continued to take on Ph.D. candidates, some of whom, such as James Cronin went on to distinguished careers.