J. Robert Oppenheimer LIFE Magazine Cover

J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American physicist best known for his work as the director of Los Alamos Laboratory and the production of the first nuclear bomb. Born in New York City on April 22, 1904, Oppenheimer came from a Jewish family. He was educated in the Ethical Culture Society School before attending Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry. Oppenheimer then attended the University of Cambridge and worked in Cavendish Laboratory, as his interests had turned from chemistry to theoretical physics. He left Cambridge for the University of Göttingen where he studied under Max Born and met other theoretical physicists such as Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Paul Dirac. Oppenheimer received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Göttingen in 1927.

After receiving his Ph.D., Oppenheimer worked as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology. After Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, the United States became interested in developing a nuclear bomb. Oppenheimer was recruited by the Manhattan Project to lead his own lab to develop one. Oppenheimer chose Los Alamos, New Mexico as the site. The first test of a nuclear bomb, known by its codename Trinity, took place on July 16, 1945, in Los Alamos.

After leaving his post in Los Alamos, Oppenheimer briefly taught at CalTech, but left for a directorship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was invited to the position by Lewis Strauss, who was also the director of the Atomic Energy Commission, of which Oppenheimer served as the chairman of the Geneal Advisory Committee. Oppenheimer and Strauss clashed on many issues, namely the development of the hydrogen bomb, which Strass championed, and Oppenheimer opposed. In 1953, Oppenheimer was accused of having communist ties and was subjected to a security hearing. Ultimately, he was found not guilty of disloyalty but still stripped of his security clearances.

Oppenheimer spent the remainder of his life and career making public appearances and giving lectures on the relationship between science and society. He passed away on February 18, 1967, in his home in Princeton, New Jersey.