Robert Oppenheimer
Born: 1904
Died: 1967
Impact: Leader of the Manhattan Project 1942
Died: 1967
Impact: Leader of the Manhattan Project 1942
Institute for Advanced study
http://www.ias.edu/people/oppenheimer
J. Robert Openheimer-
Life: Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York City and lived with his parents, Julius and Ella. He went to Ethical Culture School and graduated at the top of his class in 1921. He then went to Harvard University and introduced to experimental physics. He graduated summa cum laude in 1925 and then went to Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory as research assistant to J. J. Thomson(IAS). He did not really enjoy the laboratory work so he went to the University of Göttingen, in Germany, to study quantum physics. In 1940 he married Katharine (Kitty) Harrison and they had two children.
Work: Openheimer was a very smart man and figured out or solved theories or equations before others could. In 1930, he was the first to understand the meaning of the negative-energy solutions of Dirac's wave equation for the electron. Another solution that I was amazed with was Einstein's equations of general relativity describing the gravitational collapse of a massive star. These objects were later given the name as we know today, “Black Holes”.
Legacy: According to the late Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hans Bethe, Openheimer was responsible for "creating the greatest school of theoretical physics that the United States has ever known." At his funeral, three important speakers presented tributes to him. He was a very well-known man who had truly changed America.
J. Robert Openheimer-
Life: Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York City and lived with his parents, Julius and Ella. He went to Ethical Culture School and graduated at the top of his class in 1921. He then went to Harvard University and introduced to experimental physics. He graduated summa cum laude in 1925 and then went to Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory as research assistant to J. J. Thomson(IAS). He did not really enjoy the laboratory work so he went to the University of Göttingen, in Germany, to study quantum physics. In 1940 he married Katharine (Kitty) Harrison and they had two children.
Work: Openheimer was a very smart man and figured out or solved theories or equations before others could. In 1930, he was the first to understand the meaning of the negative-energy solutions of Dirac's wave equation for the electron. Another solution that I was amazed with was Einstein's equations of general relativity describing the gravitational collapse of a massive star. These objects were later given the name as we know today, “Black Holes”.
Legacy: According to the late Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hans Bethe, Openheimer was responsible for "creating the greatest school of theoretical physics that the United States has ever known." At his funeral, three important speakers presented tributes to him. He was a very well-known man who had truly changed America.
New York Times: On This Day
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0422.html
Roberts quotes how he felt after the bomb dropping and how he did not approve of it. He thought the world was becoming evil. "Scientists are not delinquents," he added. "Our work has changed the conditions in which men live, but the use made of these changes is the problem of governments, not of scientists." Although he had helped make the bomb, it was not his fault that America was using it and he did not agree with it.
Shortly thereafter, in 1946, Dr. Oppenheimer received a Presidential Citation and a Medal of Merit for his direction of the Los Alamos Laboratory, where the bomb had been developed. In 1953, unfortunately Oppenheimer was banned from any secret data and stripped from his security clearance of the atomic energy commission because he did not agree with the use of the atomic bomb and was seen as a communist.
Knowledge came easily to Dr. Oppenheimer. As a young man he learned enough Dutch in six weeks to deliver a technical lecture while on a visit to the Netherlands. At the age of 30 he learned Sanskrit, and he used to enjoy passing notes to other savants in that language.H e was an outstanding teacher, teaching at many places such as Caltech at Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught many young physicists and was a role model to these students who followed after him from Berkeley to Pasadena and even copied his mannerisms. Dr. Oppenheimer was best known for his over-all grasp of nuclear physics. He discovered the Oppenheimer-Phillips process and the quazars(go to page for more detail).
Roberts quotes how he felt after the bomb dropping and how he did not approve of it. He thought the world was becoming evil. "Scientists are not delinquents," he added. "Our work has changed the conditions in which men live, but the use made of these changes is the problem of governments, not of scientists." Although he had helped make the bomb, it was not his fault that America was using it and he did not agree with it.
Shortly thereafter, in 1946, Dr. Oppenheimer received a Presidential Citation and a Medal of Merit for his direction of the Los Alamos Laboratory, where the bomb had been developed. In 1953, unfortunately Oppenheimer was banned from any secret data and stripped from his security clearance of the atomic energy commission because he did not agree with the use of the atomic bomb and was seen as a communist.
Knowledge came easily to Dr. Oppenheimer. As a young man he learned enough Dutch in six weeks to deliver a technical lecture while on a visit to the Netherlands. At the age of 30 he learned Sanskrit, and he used to enjoy passing notes to other savants in that language.H e was an outstanding teacher, teaching at many places such as Caltech at Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught many young physicists and was a role model to these students who followed after him from Berkeley to Pasadena and even copied his mannerisms. Dr. Oppenheimer was best known for his over-all grasp of nuclear physics. He discovered the Oppenheimer-Phillips process and the quazars(go to page for more detail).
Los Alamos National Laboratory
http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/oppenheimer.shtml
This website gives a brief history of his early years and the major impacts and successes he had or created as a brilliant physicist or scientist. Graduating at the age of sixteen, you can see the many successes he had throughout his life because of his brilliance. He not only studied in the United States, but graduated in England with a doctorate that only took him two years!
Robert Oppenheimer was chosen by General Leslie Groves to be the leader of the creating of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos. It took them twenty eight months to build both of these atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan. When he became part of this plan, he had to leave his world of teaching and research. Oppenheimer accepted the chairmanship of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission - a position that effectively made him the preeminent scientist in the world on atomic energy matters. He also made significant contributions to both the State and Defense Departments as those two agencies wrestled with the new world of atomic weapons (LANL). Because “Oppy” was not informed with politics nor did he really know what political ideology he fit under, it changed the way his career ended, although successful, it could have helped him from being accused of a security threat. Oppenheimer was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1966, probably caused by his heavy smoking throughout the years. He retired from the Institute that year and died on February 18, 1967, in Princeton (LANL).
This website gives a brief history of his early years and the major impacts and successes he had or created as a brilliant physicist or scientist. Graduating at the age of sixteen, you can see the many successes he had throughout his life because of his brilliance. He not only studied in the United States, but graduated in England with a doctorate that only took him two years!
Robert Oppenheimer was chosen by General Leslie Groves to be the leader of the creating of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos. It took them twenty eight months to build both of these atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan. When he became part of this plan, he had to leave his world of teaching and research. Oppenheimer accepted the chairmanship of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission - a position that effectively made him the preeminent scientist in the world on atomic energy matters. He also made significant contributions to both the State and Defense Departments as those two agencies wrestled with the new world of atomic weapons (LANL). Because “Oppy” was not informed with politics nor did he really know what political ideology he fit under, it changed the way his career ended, although successful, it could have helped him from being accused of a security threat. Oppenheimer was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1966, probably caused by his heavy smoking throughout the years. He retired from the Institute that year and died on February 18, 1967, in Princeton (LANL).
Los Alamos Historical Society
http://www.losalamoshistory.org/oppiehouse.htm
Project Y was the name for the Los Alamos project that took place during World War II. They wanted a place that would be hidden but still accessible and with the supplies they needed. It said that “Oppenheimer knew of Los Alamos because he had a ranch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and had spent time horseback riding in the Jemez”(HPC). During this time the army was in charge of making sure this team was kept top secret. They also helped them build the houses for the thirty scientists that lived there.
These men worked around ten to twelve hour shifts, six days a week with some little relaxation. The trinity test was shot on July 16, 1945, at 5:30 a.m., “an incredible burst of light exploded over the desert in south central New Mexico” (HPC).
Project Y was the name for the Los Alamos project that took place during World War II. They wanted a place that would be hidden but still accessible and with the supplies they needed. It said that “Oppenheimer knew of Los Alamos because he had a ranch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and had spent time horseback riding in the Jemez”(HPC). During this time the army was in charge of making sure this team was kept top secret. They also helped them build the houses for the thirty scientists that lived there.
These men worked around ten to twelve hour shifts, six days a week with some little relaxation. The trinity test was shot on July 16, 1945, at 5:30 a.m., “an incredible burst of light exploded over the desert in south central New Mexico” (HPC).
Modern American Poetry:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/ai/aboutopp.htm
General Leslie A. Groves originally asked Lawrence to direct the atomic bomb creation but he denied so he then asked Oppenheimer. By April 1943, he had gathered a group of scientists to work on the project that averaged at only the age of twenty five. Oppenheimer’s task was to create two bombs: a “gun assembly” prototype which did not do the damage and the second one that exploded on 16 July 1945, when a plutonium bomb, the world's first nuclear device, was exploded at Alamogordo, New Mexico. On August 6th the "gun-assembly" uranium bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later a plutonium bomb, "Fat Man, obliterated Nagasaki and Japan soon surrendered. Although he was happy the war was over, Oppenheimer felt bad for what he had created which led him to resign. . He served on the Acheson-Lilienthal committee, which suggested that the United States surrender its nuclear monopoly to avoid a nuclear arms war with the Soviet Union. Issued in early 1946, the committee report recommended creation of a United Nations atomic energy commission to supervise the use of fissionable material throughout the world. Groves denounced the plan, and Truman rejected it as unworkable (Carnes).
In May 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Lewis Strauss to chair the Atomic Energy Commission and Strauss would only accept it if Oppenheimer be released from his security clearance. I think it was mainly Strauss’s fault for Oppenheimer being released. Oppenheimer still continued to direct the Institute for Advanced Study and to write on the relation of Western culture to science (Carnes).
General Leslie A. Groves originally asked Lawrence to direct the atomic bomb creation but he denied so he then asked Oppenheimer. By April 1943, he had gathered a group of scientists to work on the project that averaged at only the age of twenty five. Oppenheimer’s task was to create two bombs: a “gun assembly” prototype which did not do the damage and the second one that exploded on 16 July 1945, when a plutonium bomb, the world's first nuclear device, was exploded at Alamogordo, New Mexico. On August 6th the "gun-assembly" uranium bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later a plutonium bomb, "Fat Man, obliterated Nagasaki and Japan soon surrendered. Although he was happy the war was over, Oppenheimer felt bad for what he had created which led him to resign. . He served on the Acheson-Lilienthal committee, which suggested that the United States surrender its nuclear monopoly to avoid a nuclear arms war with the Soviet Union. Issued in early 1946, the committee report recommended creation of a United Nations atomic energy commission to supervise the use of fissionable material throughout the world. Groves denounced the plan, and Truman rejected it as unworkable (Carnes).
In May 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Lewis Strauss to chair the Atomic Energy Commission and Strauss would only accept it if Oppenheimer be released from his security clearance. I think it was mainly Strauss’s fault for Oppenheimer being released. Oppenheimer still continued to direct the Institute for Advanced Study and to write on the relation of Western culture to science (Carnes).
Awards
- 1946 Presidential Medal of Merit
- 1963 Enrico Fermi Prize