Inventor of the first nuclear bomb on Earth.

 

the inventor of the nuclear bomb and the maker of death.

Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904-February 18, 1967), born Julius Robert Oppenheimer, was an American theoretical physicist and director of the Los Alamos facility within the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is often called the " Father of the Atomic Bomb " 

He was born in New York City, obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1925, completed graduate studies in physics, and obtained a doctorate from the University of Gottingen in Germany in 1927 under the supervision of Max Born. After conducting research at other institutes, he joined the Physics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a full-time professor in 1936.  

He made significant contributions to theoretical physics, including achievements in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. Among the most important of these achievements was the development of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, which facilitates the calculation of wave couplings of particles, in addition to theoretical studies in electrons and positrons, and the Oppenheimer-Phillips process related to nuclear fission. And his work at the beginning of his career on quantum tunneling. In partnership with his students, Oppenheimer made contributions to the theory of neutron stars and black holes, quantum field theory, and cosmic ray interactions.  

In 1942, Oppenheimer was hired to work on the Manhattan Project, and in 1943, he was appointed director of the project's Los Alamos facility, located in the US state of New Mexico. The mission of the workers at this facility was to develop the world's first nuclear weapons. His leadership and scientific experience were key to the success of the project. On July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer was there to observe the first atomic bomb test, dubbed Trinity. In August 1945, nuclear weapons were used against Japan through the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed war. 

  In 1947, Oppenheimer became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and chairman of the General Advisory Committee for the then newly created US Atomic Energy Commission. He exerted political pressure to impose control on nuclear energy to avoid the spread of nuclear weapons as well as to avoid a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb during the 1949-1950 government debate on it, and even supported the development of systems and measures to defend against nuclear attacks instead, which angered some parts of the US government and the military. During the events of the Second Red Scare, Oppenheimer's positions, combined with his previous affiliations with the American Communist Party, led to the revocation of his security clearance after he underwent security hearings in 1954. This ended his access to government atomic secrets and thus ended his career as a nuclear physicist. This also stripped him of his political influence, but Oppenheimer continued to lecture, write, and work in physics. In 1963, he was awarded the Enrico Fermi Prize as a government gesture to restore his political standing. He died 4 years later after being diagnosed with throat cancer. In 2022, the US government reversed the decision to revoke Oppenheimer's security clearance, which was issued in 1954, after hearings. 

  

Oppenheimer left a rich scientific legacy, which continues to inspire future generations of scientists and researchers. With his passing in 2013, the scientific community lost one of its greatest minds, but his legacy lives on through ideas and actions that continue to influence the course of science and human progress.