Robert J. Oppenheimer

( 1904- 1967)

 http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/pictures/portrait-oppenheimer.jpg 

  Personal information     

 Robert J. Oppenheimer was born to a wealthy Jewish family on April 22, 1904 in New York. At the age of seventeen he went to Harvard University. After Harvard he studied at Cambridge University in England and then at Gottigen in Germany. Oppenheimer began to make his mark in quantum theory. When he returned back to America, he had published more than a dozen articles and made the reputation as a theoretical physicist. At the age of twenty-two he had obtained his Ph.D. In the 1930s, Oppenheimer was drawn into left-wing politics. He got involved with many left-wing organizations and began making annual donations of about 1,000 to various funds.  

 Historical/PoliticalImpact                                                                                   

In 1941 Oppenheimer was given the atomic bomb project, his first task was to calculate the mass of uranium-235, the amount to needed to sustain a chain reaction. That following summer he gathered a small group of  the best theoretical physicist at Berkeley to talk about the bombs' design. General Leslie Groves, the army officer in charge of the Manhattan Engineer District or (Manhattan project )wanted Oppenheimer to be the scientific director of the program, despite his political past. Both Oppenheimer and Groves picked out a site for the new laboratory for the project.                                             

                                                                     http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/images/LittleBoy.gifmesa

 http://www.atomicmuseum.com/Tour/manhattanproject.cfm                                     

Oppenheimer took Groves to the Los Alamos Ranch boys' school on a in the New Mexico desert. This site became the new location for the

top sercet weapons laboratory. By July 1945, the Los Alamos cite was ready to test its bomb. On July 16, the test took place code-named "Trinity". The bomb exploded with a force equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT. After the war Oppenheimer was given the nation-wide recognition of the " father of the A-bomb", his leadership and organizational skills for the project earned him the Presidential Medal of  Merit in 1964. From 1947 to 1967 he became the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. He was also the chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION, (AEC) from 1947 to 1952. In 1954 Oppenheimer was suspended from his position on charges association with the Communist. His oppositon with the development of the hydrogen bomb also played a part. He devoted his final years to the  study of the relationship of science and society.  He died in Princeton on Feburary 18, 1967 from throat cancer.                                      http://www.immediart.com/catalog/images/big_images/SPL_R_T165126Atomic_bomb_explosion-SPL.jpg

   President Relation

  In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson honored Oppenheimer with the Atomic Energy Commission's prestigious Enrico Fermi Award.

   Relations  

 M=1

Amazing video clip