J Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer , 1904-67, American physicist, b. New York City, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1925), Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1927. He taught at the Univ. of California and the California Institute of Technology from 1929 (as professor from 1936) until his appointment in 1947 as director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J. His early work was concerned with the quantum theory and nuclear physics. With Max Born he contributed to the quantum theory of molecules, and later (1930) he published an important paper on the nature of antiparticles, which had been predicted but not yet detected.

As director of the atomic-energy research project at Los Alamos, N.Mex., from 1942 to 1945, Oppenheimer made important contributions to the development of atomic energy for military purposes. After the atomic bomb was used against Japan, Oppenheimer became one of the foremost proponents of civilian and international control of atomic energy; he was chairman of the general advisory committee of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1946 to 1952 and consultant to the American delegate to the UN Atomic Energy Committee. He strongly opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb in 1949 on both technical and moral grounds. In 1953, Oppenheimer was suspended by the Atomic Energy Commission as an alleged security risk, in part due to criticism from fellow scientist Edward Teller , who was instrumental in the development of the hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer's case stirred wide controversy. In Oct., 1954, he was unanimously reelected director of the Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to his contributions as a theoretical physicist and an administrator, Oppenheimer achieved a reputation as one of the outstanding teachers of his generation; he left a lasting influence both at California and at Princeton. His book Science and the Common Understanding was published in 1954.

Bibliography: See I. I. Rabi et al., Oppenheimer (1969); J. Major, The Oppenheimer Hearing (1971); P. M. Stern and H. P. Green, The Oppenheimer Case (1971); P. Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds (1985); G. Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb (2002); J. Bernstein, Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma (2004); K. Bird and M. J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005); D. C. Cassidy, J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century (2005); P. J. McMillan, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005).

Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904–1967), physicist.Perhaps the most controversial scientist of this century, J. Robert Oppenheimer was awarded kudos in the 1940s for his contributions to the war effort and censure for allegedly betraying the country of his birth. Born in New York City and educated at Harvard and Görringen, Oppenheimer earned his Ph.D. in 1927 and quickly became recognized as a leader in theoretical physics, simultaneously rising through the academic ranks at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley, and gathering large numbers of the best scientific minds in the United States to his seminars and laboratories. In so doing, he became the catalyst for the emergence of American theoretical physics as preeminent in the world.

At the National Academy of Scientists in 1941, Oppenheimer led a group of scientists in theoretical discussions of nuclear bombs. Although intensely ambivalent about the creation of such weapons of mass destruction, he was concerned that the Nazis might produce one first, so he accepted an offer from Gen. Leslie Groves to serve as director of a highly classified U.S.‐led effort to build an atomic bomb. This effort, the Manhattan Project, was headquartered at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Many atomic scientists gathered there between 1942 and the first detonation of an atomic bomb on 16 July 1945.

Even though the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II and kept the Russians from invading Japan, Oppenheimer was overwhelmed by the devastation he had wrought. He called for a cessation of atomic research or for international guidelines on the use of atomic weaponry. Both during the war and later he became associated with Communist Party members and others with strong leftist political positions. Although no clear violations of security were ever proven, there had been instances of negligence and indiscretion. During the McCarthy investigations and purges of alleged Communists in the U.S. government in the 1950s, Oppenheimer lost his security clearance and was forced to resign from the seven atomic committees he chaired. He became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and was later at least partially vindicated when President Lyndon B. Johnson presented him with the Enrico Fermi Award in 1963.
[See also Cold War: Domestic Course.]

Bibliography

Michel Rouze , Robert Oppenheimer: The Man and His Theories, trans. Patrick Evans, 1962.
Peter Michelmore , The Swift Years: The Robert Oppenheimer Story, 1969.
Peter Goodchild , J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds, 1981.

Peter J. McNelis