OPPENHEIMER: HIS LEGACY - One short part of my research paper about childhood and adolescent years. Julius Robert Oppenheimer[note 1] (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. As the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer is among those who are called the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first nuclear weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico; Oppenheimer remarked later that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."[2][note 2] After the war, Oppenheimer became chairman of the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used that position to lobby for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. After provoking the ire of many politicians with his outspoken opinions during the Second Red Scare, he suffered the revocation of his security clearance in a much-publicized hearing in 1954, and was effectively stripped of his direct political influence; he continued to lecture, write and work in physics. Nine years later, President John F. Kennedy awarded (and Lyndon B. Johnson presented) him with the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. Oppenheimer's achievements in physics include the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wavefunctions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer–Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and the first prediction of quantum tunneling. With his students he also made important contributions to the modern theory of neutron stars and black holes, as well as to quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and the interactions of cosmic rays. As a teacher and promoter of science, he is remembered as a founding father of the American school of theoretical physics that gained world prominence in the 1930s. After World War II, he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1924 Oppenheimer was informed that he had been accepted into Christ's College, Cambridge. He wrote to Ernest Rutherford requesting permission to work at the Cavendish Laboratory. Bridgman provided Oppenheimer with a recommendation, which conceded that Oppenheimer's clumsiness in the laboratory made it apparent his forte was not experimental but rather theoretical physics. Rutherford was unimpressed, but Oppenheimer went to Cambridge in the hope of landing another offer.[18] He was ultimately accepted by J. J. Thomson on condition that he complete a basic laboratory course.[19] He developed an antagonistic relationship with his tutor, Patrick Blackett, who was only a few years his senior. While on vacation, as recalled by his friend Francis Fergusson, Oppenheimer once confessed that he had left an apple doused with noxious chemicals on Blackett's desk. While Ferguson's account is the only detailed version of this event, Oppenheimer's parents were alerted by the university authorities who considered placing him on probation, a fate prevented by his parents successfully lobbying the authorities.[20] A tall, thin chain smoker, who often neglected to eat during periods of intense thought and concentration, Oppenheimer was marked by many of his friends as having self-destructive tendencies. A disturbing event occurred when he took a vacation from his studies in Cambridge to meet up with his friend Francis Fergusson in Paris. Fergusson noticed that Oppenheimer was not well and to help distract him from his depression told Oppenheimer that he (Fergusson) was to marry his girlfriend Frances Keeley. Oppenheimer did not take the news well. He jumped on Fergusson and tried to strangle him. Although Fergusson easily fended off the attack, the episode convinced him of Oppenheimer's deep psychological troubles. Plagued throughout his life by periods of depression,[21][22] Oppenheimer once told his brother, "I need physics more than friends".[23] CITATIONS J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Mathematics Genealogy Project ^ Jump up to: a b Hijiya, James A. (June 2000). "The Gita of Robert Oppenheimer" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 144 (2). ISSN 0003-049X. Retrieved December 23, 2013. ^ Jump up to: a b "J. Robert Oppenheimer on the Trinity test (1965)". Atomic Archive. Retrieved May 23, 2008. Jump up ^ "The Eternal Apprentice". Time. November 8, 1948. Retrieved March 6, 2011. ^ Jump up to: a b Jungk 1958, p. 201 Jump up ^ Hijiya 2000, pp. 123–124 ^ Jump up to: a b Cassidy 2005, pp. 5–11 Jump up ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 10 Jump up ^ Schweber 2008, p. 283 Jump up ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 12 Jump up ^ Cassidy 2005, pp. 16, 145 ^ Jump up to: a b Cassidy 2005, p. 35
