Art, obsession, and identity
After the war, Oppenheimer’s opponents used his leftist associations to smear him as a security threat.
It wasn’t until December 2022 that the US Department of Energy restored Oppenheimer’s security clearance and officially acknowledged that his hearing had been unfair.
Sources: (History) (National Geographic) (Live Science)
See also: Marie Curie and other inventors who were killed by their own creations
During his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, Oppenheimer excelled in Latin, Greek, physics, and chemistry. He even published poetry and studied Eastern philosophy.
Businessman Lewis Strauss (pictured), who became chairman of the AEC in 1953, disliked Oppenheimer’s opposition to the hydrogen bomb. A security hearing was held to investigate Oppenheimer’s loyalty.
Needless to say, Oppenheimer was a multi-talented scholar since his youth. He completed third and fourth grades in one year, and skipped half of the eighth grade.
Even though President John F. Kennedy awarded Oppenheimer the Enrico Fermi Award for scientific achievement and leadership in 1963, Oppenheimer never regained his security clearance.
During the late '30s, Oppenheimer attended events supporting leftist causes, donated to the anti-fascist Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and subscribed to the leftist newspaper People’s World. However, he was never a member of the US Communist Party, unlike his wife and brother.
The laboratory fell under the Manhattan Project, an urgent calling from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb before the Germans.
Oppenheimer's mother (pictured holding him) was an artist. The family's art collection included works by Pablo Picasso and Édouard Vuillard, and at least three original paintings by Vincent van Gogh.
A chain smoker, Oppenheimer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1965. After inconclusive surgery, he underwent unsuccessful radiation treatment and chemotherapy. He fell into a coma and died a few days later at home in Princeton, New Jersey, on February 18, 1967. He was 62 years old.
On July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer and others gathered at the Trinity test site south of Los Alamos for the world’s first attempted nuclear blast. Conducted in secret, the test worked.
Defending the Manhattan Project and the bombs he helped build, Oppenheimer argued that it had been necessary to fully understand the possibilities of nuclear science.
It met many of the requirements needed for the project. Plus, New Mexico was also a special place for Oppenheimer, as he had been there many times since his teen years.
He was the son of Julius and Ella Oppenheimer, who were both secular Ashkenazi Jews of German descent. Oppenheimer is seen here (pictured to the left) with his brother Frank.
After having been introduced to astrophysics, Oppenheimer began publishing papers on theorized cosmic objects. In 1939, he published a paper where he theorized the existence of what we now know as black holes.
Oppenheimer was highly interested in Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hindu scripture. He studied the language while teaching at Berkeley, and read the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. Oppenheimer could speak six languages.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a born as Julius Robert Oppenheimer on April 22, 1904, in New York City.
In 1942, Oppenheimer chose the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico as the site for the Manhattan Project’s secret laboratory.
However, Oppenheimer continued to speak and write about physics and nuclear technology for the rest of his life.
The Nobel Prize for Physics committee nominated Oppenheimer in 1945, 1951, and 1967. However, the prize was instead awarded to his contemporaries.
Pictured here with his father, the Oppenheimers made their fortune by importing textiles to the US.
The night of the Hiroshima bombing, Oppenheimer was cheered by his fellow scientists, and declared that his only regret was that the bomb hadn’t been finished in time to use against Germany.
While scientists were thrilled by their accomplishment, they were also horrified at the loss of civilian lives in the attack, worrying that the weapons would encourage future wars.
Oppenheimer was married to biologist Katherine "Kitty" Puening (pictured), whom he had two children with, Peter and Katherine. During their marriage, he had an affair with his former girlfriend, Jean Tatlock, who died by suicide in 1944.
Two months after the bombings in Japan, Oppenheimer sat down with Truman, and discussed concerns about a possible future nuclear war with the USSR. Truman later recalled that meeting, writing in a letter that the father of the atomic bomb was a "cry-baby scientist."
With the help of the FBI, which illegally tapped Oppenheimer’s phone, the AEC argued that Oppenheimer’s association with communists made him a security threat. In 1954, the government revoked his security clearance.
Oppenheimer earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1925, and a PhD in physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1927. He's pictured here in the middle row, second from the left, in Leiden, Netherlands, in 1926.
On August 6 and August 9, 1945, the US dropped two of the bombs Oppenheimer had helped develop over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. At least 110,000 people were killed.
In 1946, the US formed the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to oversee the country’s nuclear weapons program. Oppenheimer used his position on this commission to argue for more control of nuclear weapons, and he stood against the development of the hydrogen bomb.
Since Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' took the Academy Award for Best Picture, there's no doubt that people's curiosity has been sparked about the "father of the atomic bomb." J. Robert Oppenheimer was known for creating the first nuclear weapon during World War II. The theoretical physicist was the director of the Manhattan Project’s secret Los Alamos National Laboratory, which created the atomic bombs that killed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Curious to learn more about Oppenheimer? Then click on through to discover what you might not have known about the infamous physicist.
Robert Oppenheimer: the man behind the atomic bomb
Who was J. Robert Oppenheimer?
LIFESTYLE Science
Since Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' took the Academy Award for Best Picture, there's no doubt that people's curiosity has been sparked about the "father of the atomic bomb." J. Robert Oppenheimer was known for creating the first nuclear weapon during World War II. The theoretical physicist was the director of the Manhattan Project’s secret Los Alamos National Laboratory, which created the atomic bombs that killed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Curious to learn more about Oppenheimer? Then click on through to discover what you might not have known about the infamous physicist.