Oppenheimer Robert (Oppenheimer Julius Robert) (22.IV.1904 - 20.II.1967)- American theoretical physicist, member of the National Academy of Sciences (1941). R. in New York. Graduated from Harvard University (1925). Improved knowledge at Cambridge University at E Rutherford(1925 - 26) and Goettingen University at M. Born(1927), where he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1928 he returned to the USA. In 1929 - 47 he worked at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology (since 1936 - professor). In 1943-45 he headed the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. In 1947 - 66 director and in 1947 - 67 - professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies (Princeton). For speaking out against the creation of a hydrogen bomb and for the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, he was removed from all posts and accused of "disloyalty" (1953).

The works relate to nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, relativity theory, cosmic ray physics, elementary particle physics, theoretical astrophysics. Together with M. Born in 1927 he developed the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. He proposed a method for calculating the distribution of intensities over the components of the radiation spectra, developed a theory of the interaction of free electrons with atoms. In 1928 he explained the phenomenon of autoionization of excited states of atomic hydrogen using the tunnel effect.

In 1931 he and P. Ehrenfest showed that nuclei consisting of an odd number of particles with spin 1/2 must obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics, and those of an even number must obey the Bose-Einstein statistics (the Ehrenfest-Oppenheimer theorem). Applying this theorem to the nitrogen nucleus, they showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with the known properties of nitrogen.
Together with M. Philips, he developed (1935) the theory of nuclear breakdown reactions (Oppenheimer-Philips reactions). Investigated the internal conversion of gamma rays, established (1933) the mechanism of pair formation.
In 1937, together with J. Carlson, he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers; in 1938, with G. Volkov, he made the first calculation of the neutron star model; in 1939, with J. Snyder, he predicted the existence of "black holes." At Berkeley, he collaborated with E. Lawrence in the development of methods for the separation of uranium isotopes.
In 1947, he independently explained the "Lamb shift".
The works of recent years are also devoted to general problems of science.
Founder of the Berkeley School of Science. Member of a number of academies of sciences and scientific about-in. In 1948 - President of the American Physical Society.

The ashes of R. Oppenheimer after cremation were scattered over the sea near Carvel Rock on St. John's Island, Virgin Islands. Later, the ashes of his wife were scattered there.
E. Fermi Prize (1963) "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to theoretical physics, as well as for the scientific and administrative leadership of the work on the creation of the atomic bomb and for active work in the field of the application of atomic energy for peaceful purposes" ..

Compositions:

Literature:

1. Ruse M. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb. - State publishing house of literature on atomic science and technology of the State Committee on atomic science and technology. Moscow. 1963
2. Yu. B. Khariton. Special speech in memory of Robert Oppenheimer. Nature, No. 3, 1999. (http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/VV/JOURNAL/NATURE/03_99/KHARITON.PDF)
3. D. Holloway. Oppenheimer and Khariton: parallels of life. Nature. No. 2, 2005 (http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/VV/JOURNAL/NATURE/02_05/KHAROPP.HTM)

Films:

Robert Oppenheimer

Geniuses and villains: Khariton and Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer. Destroyer of Worlds

Julius Robert Oppenheimer Born April 22, 1904 - died February 18, 1967. American theoretical physicist, professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, member of the US National Academy of Sciences (since 1941). Widely known as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, within the framework of which the first nuclear weapons were developed during the Second World War, Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" because of this.

The atomic bomb was first tested in New Mexico in July 1945. Oppenheimer later recalled that at that moment the words from the Bhagavad Gita came to his mind: "If the radiance of a thousand suns flashed in the sky, it would be like the brilliance of the Almighty ... I became Death, the destroyer of Worlds."

After World War II, he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He also became a chief adviser to the newly formed US Atomic Energy Commission and used his position to advocate for international control of nuclear energy to prevent the proliferation of atomic weapons and the nuclear race. This anti-war stance angered a number of politicians during the second wave of the Red Scare. Eventually, after a widely publicized politicized hearing in 1954, he was stripped of his security clearance. Having no direct political influence since then, he continued to lecture, write papers and work in the field of physics. Ten years later, the President awarded the scientist the Enrico Fermi Prize as a sign of political rehabilitation. The award was presented after Kennedy's death.

Oppenheimer's most significant achievements in physics include: the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer-Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and the first prediction of quantum tunneling.

Together with his students, he made important contributions to the modern theory of neutron stars and black holes, as well as to the solution of certain problems in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and cosmic ray physics.

Oppenheimer was a teacher and propagandist of science, the founding father of the American school of theoretical physics, which gained world fame in the 30s of the XX century.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904 to a Jewish family. His father, Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer (1865-1948), a wealthy textile importer, immigrated to the United States from Hanau, Germany in 1888. The mother's family, the Paris-educated artist Ella Friedman (d. 1948), also immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1840s. Robert had a younger brother, Frank, who also became a physicist.

In 1912, the Oppenheimers moved to Manhattan, to an apartment on the eleventh floor of 155 Riverside Drive, off West 88th Street. This area is known for its luxurious mansions and townhouses. The family's collection of paintings included originals by Pablo Picasso and Jean Vuillard and at least three originals by Vincent van Gogh.

Oppenheimer briefly attended the Alcuin Preparatory School, then, in 1911, he entered the School of the Society for Ethical Culture. It was founded by Felix Adler to promote education promoted by the Ethical Culture Movement, whose slogan was "Deed before Creed". Robert's father was a member of this society for many years, serving on its board of trustees from 1907 to 1915.

Oppenheimer was a versatile student, interested in English and French literature and especially mineralogy. He completed the program of the third and fourth grades in one year and in half a year he completed the eighth grade and moved to the ninth, in the last grade he became interested in chemistry. Robert entered Harvard College a year later, at the age of 18, having survived a bout of ulcerative colitis while prospecting for minerals in Jáchymov during a family holiday in Europe. For treatment, he went to New Mexico, where he was fascinated by horseback riding and the nature of the southwestern United States.

In addition to majors, students were required to study history, literature, and philosophy or mathematics. Oppenheimer made up for his "late start" by taking six courses a semester and was accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa student honor society. In his freshman year, Oppenheimer was allowed to take a master's program in physics based on independent study; this meant that he was exempt from the initial subjects and could be taken immediately to advanced courses. After listening to a thermodynamics course taught by Percy Bridgman, Robert became seriously interested in experimental physics. He graduated from the university with honors (lat. summa cum laude) in just three years.

In 1924, Oppenheimer learned that he had been accepted into Christ's College, Cambridge. He wrote a letter to Ernest Rutherford asking for permission to work at the Cavendish Laboratory. Bridgman gave his student a recommendation, noting his learning abilities and analytical mind, but concluded that Oppenheimer was not inclined towards experimental physics. Rutherford was unimpressed, yet Oppenheimer went to Cambridge hoping to get another offer. As a result, J.J. Thomson took him in on the condition that the young man complete the basic laboratory course.

Oppenheimer left Cambridge in 1926 to study at the University of Göttingen under Max Born.

Robert Oppenheimer completed his Ph.D. thesis in March 1927, at the age of 23, under Born's scientific supervision. At the end of the oral examination, held on May 11, James Frank, the presiding professor, is reported to have said: “I'm glad it's over. He almost started asking me questions himself.”

In September 1927, Oppenheimer applied for and received a National Research Council scholarship to work at the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"). However, Bridgman also wanted Oppenheimer to work at Harvard, and as a compromise, Oppenheimer split his 1927-28 academic year so that he worked at Harvard in 1927 and Caltech in 1928.

In the autumn of 1928, Oppenheimer visited the Paul Ehrenfest Institute at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he impressed those present by lecturing in Dutch, although he had little experience in that language. There he was given the nickname "Opie" (Dutch. Opje), which later his students remade in the English manner in "Oppie" (Eng. Oppie). After Leiden, he went to ETH Zurich to work with Wolfgang Pauli on problems in quantum mechanics and, in particular, on the description of the continuous spectrum. Oppenheimer deeply respected and loved Pauli, who may have had a strong influence on the scientist's own style and critical approach to problems.

Upon his return to the United States, Oppenheimer accepted an invitation to become an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was invited by Raymond Thayer Birge, who wanted Oppenheimer to work for him so much that he allowed him to work in parallel at Caltech. But before Oppenheimer took office, he was diagnosed with a mild form of tuberculosis; because of this, he and his brother Frank spent several weeks on a ranch in New Mexico, which he rented and later bought. When he found out that this place was available for rent, he exclaimed: Hot dog! (English “Wow!”, Literally “Hot dog”) - and later the name of the ranch became Perro Caliente, which is a literal translation of hot dog into Spanish. Oppenheimer later liked to say that "physics and desert country" were his "two great passions." He was cured of tuberculosis and returned to Berkeley, where he succeeded as the scientific adviser to a generation of young physicists who admired him for his intellectual sophistication and broad interests.

Oppenheimer worked closely with Nobel laureate experimental physicist Ernest Lawrence and his fellow cyclotron developers, helping them interpret data from Lawrence Radiation Laboratory instruments.

In 1936, the University of Berkeley gave the scientist a professorship with a salary of $3,300 a year. In return, he was asked to stop teaching at Caltech. As a result, the parties agreed that Oppenheimer was off work for 6 weeks every year - this was enough to conduct classes for one trimester at Caltech.

Oppenheimer's scientific research relates to theoretical astrophysics, closely related to the general theory of relativity and the theory of the atomic nucleus, nuclear physics, theoretical spectroscopy, quantum field theory, including quantum electrodynamics. He was attracted by the formal rigor of relativistic quantum mechanics, although he doubted its correctness. Some later discoveries were predicted in his work, including the discovery of the neutron, meson, and neutron stars.

In 1931, together with Paul Ehrenfest, he proved a theorem according to which nuclei consisting of an odd number of fermion particles must obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics, and from an even number, the Bose-Einstein statistics. This statement is known as Ehrenfest-Oppenheimer theorem, made it possible to show the insufficiency of the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of the atomic nucleus.

Oppenheimer made a significant contribution to the theory of showers of cosmic rays and other high-energy phenomena, using to describe them the then existing formalism of quantum electrodynamics, which was developed in the pioneering work of Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli. He showed that in the framework of this theory already in the second order of the perturbation theory quadratic divergences of the integrals corresponding to the self-energy of the electron are observed.

In 1930, Oppenheimer wrote a paper that essentially predicted the existence of the positron.

After the discovery of the positron, Oppenheimer, together with his students Milton Plesset and Leo Nedelsky, calculated the cross sections for the production of new particles during the scattering of energetic gamma rays in the field of an atomic nucleus. Later, he applied his results concerning the production of electron-positron pairs to the theory of cosmic ray showers, to which he paid much attention in subsequent years (in 1937, together with Franklin Carlson, he developed the cascade theory of showers).

In 1934, Oppenheimer, together with Wendell Ferry, generalized Dirac's theory of the electron., including positrons in it and obtaining as one of the consequences the effect of vacuum polarization (similar ideas were expressed simultaneously by other scientists). However, this theory was also not free from divergences, which gave rise to Oppenheimer's skeptical attitude towards the future of quantum electrodynamics. In 1937, after the discovery of mesons, Oppenheimer assumed that the new particle was identical to that proposed a few years earlier by Hideki Yukawa, and together with his students calculated some of its properties.

With his first graduate student, Melba Phillips, Oppenheimer worked on calculating the artificial radioactivity of elements bombarded by deuterons. Ernest Lawrence and Edwin Macmillan had previously found that the results were well described by George Gamow's calculations when irradiating atomic nuclei with deuterons, but when more massive nuclei and particles with higher energies were involved in the experiment, the result began to diverge from theory.

Oppenheimer and Phillips developed a new theory to explain these results in 1935. She gained fame as Oppenheimer-Phillips process and is still in use today. The essence of this process is that the deuteron, upon collision with a heavy nucleus, decays into a proton and a neutron, and one of these particles is captured by the nucleus, while the other leaves it. Other results of Oppenheimer in the field of nuclear physics include calculations of the density of energy levels of nuclei, the nuclear photoelectric effect, the properties of nuclear resonances, the explanation of the creation of electron pairs when fluorine is irradiated with protons, the development of the meson theory of nuclear forces, and some others.

In the late 1930s, Oppenheimer, probably influenced by his friend Richard Tolman, became interested in astrophysics, which resulted in a series of articles.

Many believe that, despite his talents, the level of Oppenheimer's discoveries and research does not allow him to be ranked among those theorists who expanded the boundaries of fundamental knowledge. The variety of his interests sometimes did not allow him to fully concentrate on a single task. One of Oppenheimer's habits that surprised his colleagues and friends was his tendency to read original foreign literature, especially poetry.

In 1933 he learned Sanskrit and met the Indologist Arthur Ryder at Berkeley. Oppenheimer read the original Bhagavad Gita. Later, he spoke of it as one of the books that had a strong influence on him and shaped his philosophy of life.

Experts such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez have suggested that if Oppenheimer lived long enough to see his predictions confirmed by experiments, he might win a Nobel Prize for his work on gravitational collapse, related to the theory of neutron stars and black holes. Retrospectively, some physicists and historians regard it as his most significant achievement, although not taken up by his contemporaries. When the physicist and historian of science Abraham Pais once asked Oppenheimer what he considered his most important contribution to science, Oppenheimer named a work on electrons and positrons, but did not say a word about work on gravitational contraction. Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times - in 1945, 1951 and 1967 - but was never awarded it..

On October 9, 1941, shortly before the US entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt approved an accelerated program to build the atomic bomb. In May 1942, the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, James B. Conant, one of Oppenheimer's Harvard teachers, asked him to lead a group at Berkeley that would work on fast neutron calculations. Robert, worried about the difficult situation in Europe, took up the job with enthusiasm.

The title of his position - "Coordinator of Rapid Rupture" ("Coordinator of the Rapid Rupture") - clearly alluded to the use of a fast neutron chain reaction in the atomic bomb. One of Oppenheimer's first acts in his new position was to organize a summer school on bomb theory at his Berkeley campus. His group, which included both European physicists and his own students, including Robert Serber, Emil Konopinsky, Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, and Edward Teller, studied what and in what order to do to get a bomb.

To manage its part of the atomic project, the US Army in June 1942 founded the "Manhattan Engineer District" (Manhattan Engineer District), better known later as Manhattan Project, thereby initiating a transfer of responsibility from the Office of Scientific Research and Development to the military. In September, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves Jr. was named project leader. Groves, in turn, appointed Oppenheimer as head of the secret weapons laboratory.

Oppenheimer and Groves decided that for the sake of security and cohesion, they needed a centralized secret research laboratory in a remote area. A search for a convenient location in late 1942 brought Oppenheimer to New Mexico, near his ranch.

On November 16, 1942, Oppenheimer, Groves and the others inspected the proposed site. Oppenheimer was afraid that the high cliffs surrounding the place would make his men feel like they were in a confined space, while the engineers saw the possibility of flooding. Then Oppenheimer suggested a place that he knew well - a flat mesa (mesa) near Santa Fe, where there was a private educational institution for boys - Los Alamos Farm School. The engineers were concerned about the lack of a good access road and water supply, but otherwise found the site to be ideal. Los Alamos National Laboratory was hastily built on the site of the school. The builders occupied several buildings of the latter for it and erected many others in the shortest possible time. There Oppenheimer assembled a group of eminent physicists of the time, which he called "lights" (luminaries).

Oppenheimer directed these studies, theoretical and experimental, in the true sense of the word. Here his uncanny speed at grasping the main points on any subject was the deciding factor; he could get acquainted with all the important details of each part of the work.

In 1943, development efforts were focused on a gun-type plutonium nuclear bomb called the Thin Man. The first studies of the properties of plutonium were carried out using cyclotron-produced plutonium-239, which was extremely pure but could only be produced in small quantities.

When Los Alamos received the first sample of plutonium from the X-10 graphite reactor in April 1944, a new problem emerged: reactor-grade plutonium had a higher concentration of the 240Pu isotope, making it unsuitable for gun-type bombs.

In July 1944, Oppenheimer left the development of cannon bombs, focusing his efforts on the creation of implosion-type weapons (English implosion-type). With the help of a chemical explosive lens, a subcritical sphere of fissile material could be compressed to a smaller size and thus to a higher density. The substance in this case would have to travel a very small distance, so the critical mass would be reached in a much shorter time.

In August 1944, Oppenheimer completely reorganized the Los Alamos Laboratory, focusing his efforts on the study of implosion (an explosion directed inwards). A separate group was given the task of developing a bomb of simple design, which was supposed to work only on uranium-235; the project of this bomb was ready in February 1945 - she was given the name "Kid" (Little Boy). After a titanic effort, the design of a more complex implosion charge, nicknamed "Christy's Thing" (Christy gadget), in honor of Robert Christie, was completed on February 28, 1945 at a meeting in Oppenheimer's office.

The result of the coordinated work of scientists at Los Alamos was the first artificial nuclear explosion near Alamogordo on July 16, 1945, in a place that Oppenheimer in mid-1944 called "Trinity" (Trinity). He later said that the title was taken from John Donne's Sacred Sonnets. According to historian Gregg Herken, the title may be a reference to Jean Tatlock (who committed suicide a few months earlier) who introduced Donn's writing to Oppenheimer in the 1930s.

For his work as the head of Los Alamos in 1946, Oppenheimer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit.

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Manhattan Project became public, and Oppenheimer became a national representative of science, symbolic of a new type of technocratic power. His face appeared on the covers of Life and Time magazines. Nuclear physics has become a powerful force as governments around the world begin to understand the strategic and political power that comes with nuclear weapons and their dire consequences. Like many scientists of his time, Oppenheimer understood that only an international organization, such as the newly formed United Nations, could provide security for nuclear weapons, which could introduce a program to curb the arms race.

In November 1945, Oppenheimer left Los Alamos to return to Caltech, but soon found that teaching did not appeal to him as much as before.

In 1947, he accepted an offer from Lewis Strauss to head the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey.

As a member of the Board of Advisers to the commission approved by President Harry Truman, Oppenheimer had a strong influence on the Acheson-Lilienthal report. In this report, the committee recommended the creation of an international "Agency for the Development of the Nuclear Industry", which would own all nuclear materials and their production facilities, including mines and laboratories, as well as nuclear power plants in which nuclear materials would be used to produce energy for peaceful purposes. . Bernard Baruch was put in charge of translating this report into the form of a proposal to the UN Council and completed it in 1946. The Baruch Plan introduced a number of additional provisions regarding law enforcement, in particular the need to inspect the uranium resources of the Soviet Union. The Baruch Plan was seen as an attempt by the US to gain a monopoly on nuclear technology and was rejected by the Soviets. After that, it became clear to Oppenheimer that because of the mutual suspicions of the United States and the Soviet Union, an arms race was inevitable.

After the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1947 as a civilian agency for nuclear research and nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer was appointed chairman of its General Advisory Committee (GAC).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (then under John Edgar Hoover) followed Oppenheimer before the war, when he, as a professor at Berkeley, showed sympathy for the Communists, and was also intimately acquainted with members of the Communist Party, among whom were his wife and brother. He has been under close surveillance since the early 1940s: bugs were placed in his house, telephone conversations were recorded, and mail was looked through. Oppenheimer's political enemies, among them Lewis Straus, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, who had long felt resentment towards Oppenheimer, both because of Robert's speech against the hydrogen bomb, which Straus advocated, and for humiliating Lewis before Congress a few years earlier; in reference to Strauss' opposition to the export of radioactive isotopes, Oppenheimer memorably classified them as "less important than electronic devices, but more important than, say, vitamins."

On June 7, 1949, Oppenheimer testified before the Un-American Activities Commission, where he admitted to having ties to the Communist Party in the 1930s. He testified that some of his students, including David Bohm, Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz, Philip Morrison, Bernard Peters, and Joseph Weinberg, were communists during the period they worked with him at Berkeley. Frank Oppenheimer and his wife Jackie also testified before the Commission that they were members of the Communist Party. Frank was subsequently fired from his position at the University of Michigan. A physicist by training, he did not find work in his specialty for many years and became a farmer on a cattle ranch in Colorado. He later began teaching high school physics and founded the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

In 1950, Paul Crouch, a Communist Party recruiter in Alameda County from April 1941 until early 1942, became the first person to accuse Oppenheimer of having links with that party. He testified before a congressional committee that Oppenheimer had held a Party meeting at his home in Berkeley. At that time, the case received wide publicity. However, Oppenheimer was able to prove that he was in New Mexico when the meeting took place, and Crouch was eventually found to be an unreliable informant. In November 1953, J. Edgar Hoover received a letter regarding Oppenheimer written by William Liscum Borden, former executive director of the Congress' Joint Atomic Energy Committee. In the letter, Borden expressed his opinion, " based on several years of research, according to the available secret information, that J. Robert Oppenheimer - with a certain degree of probability - is an agent of the Soviet Union.

Oppenheimer's former colleague, physicist Edward Teller, testified against Oppenheimer at his 1954 security clearance hearing.

Straus, along with Senator Brian McMahon, author of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, forced Eisenhower to reopen the Oppenheimer trial. On December 21, 1953, Lewis Straus informed Oppenheimer that the admission hearing was suspended pending a decision on a number of charges listed in a letter from Kenneth D. Nichols, general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, and suggested that the scientist resign. Oppenheimer did not do this and insisted on holding a hearing.

At the hearing, held in April - May 1954, which was initially closed and did not receive publicity, special attention was paid to Oppenheimer's former connections with the Communists and his cooperation during the Manhattan Project with unreliable or Communist Party scientists. One of the highlights of this hearing was Oppenheimer's early testimony about George Eltenton's conversations with several scientists at Los Alamos, a story that Oppenheimer himself admitted to have fabricated to protect his friend Haakon Chevalier. Oppenheimer was unaware that both versions had been recorded during his interrogations ten years earlier, and he was surprised when a witness provided these notes, which Oppenheimer was not allowed to see first. In fact, Oppenheimer never told Chevalier that he had given his name, and this testimony cost Chevalier his job. Both Chevalier and Eltenton confirmed that they talked about the possibility of passing information to the Soviets: Eltenton admitted that he told Chevalier about it, and Chevalier that he mentioned it to Oppenheimer; but both did not see anything seditious in idle talk, completely rejecting the possibility that the transfer of such information as intelligence could be carried out or even planned for the future. None of them were charged with any crime.

Edward Teller testified in the Oppenheimer trial on April 28, 1954. Teller stated that he does not question Oppenheimer's loyalty to the United States, but "knows him as a man of extremely active and sophisticated thinking." When asked if Oppenheimer posed a threat to national security, Teller responded: "On a large number of occasions, I found it extremely difficult to understand the actions of Dr. Oppenheimer. I completely disagreed with him on many issues, and his actions seemed to me confused and complicated. In this sense "I would like to see the vital interests of our country in the hands of a man whom I understand better and therefore trust more. In this very limited sense, I would like to express the feeling that I personally would feel more secure if the public interests were in other hands" .

This position outraged the American scientific community, and Teller, in fact, was subjected to a lifelong boycott.

Groves also testified against Oppenheimer, but his testimony is rife with speculation and contradiction.

During the proceedings, Oppenheimer willingly testified about the "leftist" behavior of many of his fellow scientists. According to Richard Polenberg, if Oppenheimer's clearance had not been revoked, he might have gone down in history as one of those who "named names" to save his reputation. But since it did, he was seen by most of the scientific community as a "martyr" of "McCarthyism," an eclectic liberal who was unfairly attacked by his militarist enemies, a symbol of scientific creativity moving from the universities to the military. Wernher von Braun expressed his opinion on the scientist's trial in a sarcastic remark to a congressional committee: "In England, Oppenheimer would have been knighted."

P. A. Sudoplatov in his book notes that Oppenheimer, like other scientists, was not recruited, but was "a source associated with trusted agents, proxies and operatives." At a seminar at the Institute Woodrow Wilson Institute On May 20, 2009, John Earl Hines, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vasiliev, based on a comprehensive analysis of the latter's notes based on materials from the KGB archive, confirmed that Oppenheimer never spying for the Soviet Union. The secret services of the USSR periodically tried to recruit him, but were not successful - Oppenheimer did not betray the United States. Moreover, he fired several people who sympathized with the Soviet Union from the Manhattan Project.

Beginning in 1954, Oppenheimer spent several months of the year on Saint John, one of the Virgin Islands. In 1957, he bought a 2-acre (0.81 ha) plot of land on Gibney Beach, where he built a Spartan waterfront home. Oppenheimer spent much of his time sailing with his daughter Tony and wife Kitty.

Increasingly concerned about the potential danger of scientific discoveries to humanity, Oppenheimer joined with Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Joseph Rotblat, and other eminent scientists and educators to found the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960. After his public humiliation, Oppenheimer did not sign major open protests against nuclear weapons in the 1950s, including the 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto. He did not come to the first Pugwash Conference for Peace and Scientific Cooperation in 1957, although he was invited.

Oppenheimer has been a heavy smoker since his youth. At the end of 1965, he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and, after an unsuccessful operation, at the end of 1966 he underwent radio and chemotherapy. The treatment had no effect. On February 15, 1967, Oppenheimer fell into a coma and died on February 18 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 62.

A memorial service was held at Alexander Hall at Princeton University a week later, attended by 600 of his closest colleagues and friends—scientists, politicians, and the military—including Bethe, Groves, Kennan, Lilienthal, Rabi, Smith, and Wigner. Also present were Frank and the rest of his family, historian Arthur Meyer Schlesinger, Jr., writer John O'Hara, and director of the New York City Ballet George Balanchine. Bethe, Kennan and Smith made short speeches in which they paid tribute to the achievements of the deceased.

Oppenheimer was cremated and his ashes placed in an urn. Kitty took her to St. John's Island and threw her off the side of the boat into the sea within sight of their cabin.

After the death of Kitty Oppenheimer, who died in October 1972 from an intestinal infection complicated by a pulmonary embolism, their son Peter inherited Oppenheimer's ranch in New Mexico, and their daughter Tony inherited the property on St. John's Island. Tony was denied a security clearance, which was required for her chosen profession as a UN translator, after the FBI raised old charges against her father.

In January 1977, three months after the annulment of her second marriage, she committed suicide by hanging herself in a house on the coast; she bequeathed her property "to the people of Saint John as a public park and recreation area." The house, originally built too close to the sea, was destroyed by the hurricane; the government of the Virgin Islands currently maintains a Community Center on the site.

He was a very conscientious person, and after the use of the nuclear bomb he created, he called on scientists around the world to no longer create weapons of destructive power. Oppenheimer went down in history as the "father of the atomic bomb" and as the discoverer of black holes in the universe.

From early childhood, Oppenheimer was quite seriously called a child prodigy. He learned very early and, even before entering the university, he was interested in many sciences: art, history, literature, mathematics, etc. His were Jews, immigrants from Germany, who settled in New York in 1888.

His father owned a prosperous business, his mother was a well-known artist. Parents always encouraged their son's thirst for knowledge and they had a huge library at home. Robert was placed in the best school in New York, where the teachers immediately noted the boy's talent. He studied easily, quickly learned the Greek language, then began to study Sanskrit, the oldest literary Indian language. The boy was very actively interested in medicine and mathematics.

In 1922, the young man entered one of the most prestigious universities in the United States - Harvard University. After 3 years, he received with honors. Then Robert was sent for an internship in Europe to the famous English physicist Ernest Rutherford. It was there that he began to study atomic phenomena. Further, the still very young Oppenheimer, together with a professor at the University of Göttingen, physicist and mathematician Max Born, developed part of the quantum theory. Today this knowledge is known as the Born-Oppenheimer method.

Teaching and the atomic bomb

When Oppenheimer was 25 years old, he returned to the United States, published a scientific work and at the same time became a doctor of science. He became known in the scientific world of Europe and America. Several American universities immediately offered him the best conditions for research and teaching. Robert chose Caltech in Pasadena to teach in the spring semester and Berkeley for the fall/winter season. In the latter, he also taught quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, students did not understand his theories well, and therefore Oppenheimer's teaching activities brought little pleasure.

In 1939, Nazi Germany managed to split the atomic nucleus. Some eminent scientists, including Oppenheimer, guessed that it was about obtaining a controlled reaction, which is the key to obtaining destructive weapons. The famous Einstein, Oppenheimer and other scientists wrote a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt, where they expressed their observations and concerns. The signal was received and the United States immediately began to develop its own atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer became the scientific director of the entire process.

"Fat Man" and "Kid"

In 1945, the atomic bomb was ready. Immediately the question arose: what to do with this weapon? After all, Nazi Germany was already in ruins, Japan also did not pose any danger. The new president of America, Harry Truman, gathered all the scientists to discuss this issue. As a result, it was decided to drop an atomic bomb on one of Japan's military facilities. Oppenheimer considered this and agreed.

Before that, she was tested in Almagordo, New Mexico. The explosion took place on July 16, 1945. The destructive power of the bomb was such that it even plunged many into horror. However, the war machine was already running. On August 6, the uranium bomb "Baby" was dropped on Hiroshima, and on August 9, the plutonium bomb "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki.

Since Oppenheimer was married to a communist and himself once supported communist views, he was recognized as unreliable. Because of this, a cross was put on his future career, access to classified information was completely blocked for him. Robert Oppenheimer felt like an exile, he was nervous and smoked a lot. In 1966, his health deteriorated rapidly, and a year later he died of throat cancer at his home in Princeton.

Robert Oppenheimer is widely known as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II, which is why he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb".

Today we decided to illustrate you the biography of the famous scientist.

“If the radiance of a thousand suns flashed in the sky, it would be like the brilliance of the Almighty ... I became Death, the destroyer of the Worlds”

Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born to Julius Oppenheimer, a wealthy textile importer, and artist Ella Friedman. His parents were Jews who immigrated in 1888 from Germany to America.

Scientist Robert Oppenheimer as a child

The boy receives his primary education at the Preparatory School. Alcuin, and in 1911 he entered the School of the Society for Ethical Culture. Here he in a short time receives a secondary education, showing special interest in mineralogy.

Robert Oppenheimer, 1931

In 1922, Robert entered Harvard College for a course in chemistry, but later he would also study literature, history, mathematics, and theoretical and experimental physics. He graduated from the university in 1925.

Photo of young Oppenheimer

Entering Christ's College at Cambridge University, he works at the Cavendish Laboratory, where he soon receives an offer to work for the famous British physicist J. J. Thomson - on the condition that Oppenheimer completes the basic laboratory training course.

Robert Oppenheimer (with tube)

Since 1926, Robert has been studying at the University of Göttingen, where Max Born becomes his supervisor. At that time, this university was one of the leading institutions of higher education in the field of theoretical physics, and it was here that Oppenheimer met a number of prominent people whose names would soon become known to the whole world: Enrico Fermi and Wolfgang Pauli.

Oppenheimer , Enrico Fermi and Ernest Lawrence

His dissertation entitled "The Born-Oppenheimer Approximation" makes a significant contribution to the study of the nature of molecules. Finally, in 1927, he graduated from the university, having received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Young Oppenheimer's hairstyle

In 1927, Oppenheimer was awarded membership in research groups at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology by the US National Research Council. In 1928, he lectured at the University of Leiden, after which he went to Zurich, where, together with his colleague from the institute, Wolfgang Pauli, he worked on questions of quantum mechanics and the continuous spectrum.

Robert Oppenheimer . "Father" of the American atomic bomb

In 1929, Oppenheimer accepted an offer to become an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he would work for the next twenty years.

Called himself the destroyer of worlds Robert Oppenheimer

Since 1934, continuing his work in the field of physics, he also takes an active part in the political life of the country. Oppenheimer donates part of his salary to help German physicists seeking to escape Nazi Germany, and shows support for social reforms that would later be called "communist efforts."

Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer

In 1936, Oppenheimer received the position of full professor at the National Laboratory. Lawrence at Berkeley. However, at the same time, the continuation of his full-fledged teaching at the California Institute of Technology becomes impossible. Ultimately, the parties come to an agreement that Oppenheimer will vacate his position at the university after six academic weeks, which corresponded to one semester.

From left to right: Robert Oppenheimer , Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence

In 1942, Oppenheimer took part in the Manhattan Project, along with a research group engaged in the development of atomic bombs during World War II.

General Leslie Groves (military head of the Manhattan Project) and Robert Oppenheimer (scientific head)

In 1947, Oppenheimer was unanimously elected head of the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission. In this position, he actively petitions for strict adherence to international rules on the use of weapons and support for fundamental scientific projects.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer

Even before the outbreak of World War II, the FBI, and J. Edgar Hoover personally, put Oppenheimer under surveillance, suspecting him of close ties to the Communist group.

In 1949, before the Commission of Inquiry into Un-American Activities, the scientist admits that in the 1930s he did take an active part in the Communist Party. As a result, in the next four years it will be declared unreliable.

Professor Robert Oppenheimer

At the end of his life, Oppenheimer collaborated with Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein and Joseph Rotblat, jointly opening the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960.

Robert Oppenheimer, Elsa Einstein, Albert Einstein, Margarita Konenkova, Einstein's adopted daughter, Margot

Oppenheimer has been a heavy smoker since his youth; at the end of 1965 he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and, after an unsuccessful operation, at the end of 1966 he underwent radio and chemotherapy. The treatment had no effect; On February 15, 1967, Oppenheimer fell into a coma and died on February 18 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 62.

The lunar crater of the same name and asteroid No.  67085 are named in his honor.

Interesting Facts

The theoretical physicist François Ferguson, a friend of Oppenheimer, recalled how, one day, he left an apple doused with harmful chemicals on the table of his supervisor Patrick Blackett.

The most famous theoretical physicist, Oppenheimer had serious mental problems, was a heavy smoker and often forgot to eat during his work.

Bhagavad Gita After testing the first atomic bomb in New Mexico in July 1945, Oppenheimer recalled that at that moment these words came to his mind Now, I am become Death, the destroyer (shatterer) of worlds

- Robert Oppenheimer
Isidore Isaac Rabi

- Robert Oppenheimer
Misattributed, This is derived from a statement of James Branch Cabell, in The Silver Stallion (1926) : The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

- Robert Oppenheimer
His exclamation after the Trinity atomic bomb test (16 July 1945), according to his brother in the documentary The Day After Trinity

- Robert Oppenheimer
Context: We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption. We know that in secrecy error, undetected, will flourish and subvert. "Encouragement of Science" (Address at Science Talent Institute, 6 Mar 1950), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, v.7, #1 (Jan 1951) p. 6-8

- Robert Oppenheimer
Context: I believe that through discipline, though not through discipline alone, we can achieve serenity, and a certain small but precious measure of the freedom from the accidents of incarnation, and charity, and that detachment which preserves the world which it renounces. I believe that through discipline we can learn to preserve what is essential to our happiness in more and more adverse circumstances, and to abandon with simplicity what would else have seemed to us indispensable; that we come a little to see the world without the gross distortion of personal desire, and in seeing it so, accept more easily our earthly privation and its earthly horror - But because I believe that the reward of discipline is greater than its immediate objective, I would not have you think that discipline without objective is possible: in its nature discipline involves the subjection of the soul to some perhaps minor end; and that end must be real, if the discipline is not to be factitious. Therefore I think that all things which evoke discipline: study, and our duties to men and to the commonwealth, war, and personal hardship, and even the need for subsistence, ought to be greeted by us with profound gratitude, for only through them can we attain to the least detachment; and only so can we know peace. Letter to his brother Frank (12 March 1932), published in Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections (1995) edited by Alice Kimball Smith, p. 155

- Robert Oppenheimer
Context: Everyone wants rather to be pleasing to women and that desire is not altogether, though it is very largely, a manifestation of vanity. But one cannot aim to be pleasing to women any more than one can aim to have taste, or beauty of expression, or happiness; for these things are not specific aims which one may learn to attain; they are descriptions of the adequacy of one's living. To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly. Letter to his brother Frank (14 October 1929), published in Robert Oppenheimer : Letters and Recollections (1995) edited by Alice Kimball Smith, p.136

- Robert Oppenheimer
Context: It is with gratitude and gratefulness that I accept from you this scroll for the Los Alamos Laboratory, and for the men and women whose work and whose hearts have made it. It is our hope that in years to come we may look at the scroll and all that it signifies, with pride. Today that pride must be tempered by a profound concern. If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of the nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima. The people of this world must unite or they will perish. This war that has ravaged so much of the earth, has written these words. The atomic bomb has spelled them out for all men to understand. Other men have spoken them in other times, and of other wars, of other weapons. They have not prevailed. There are some misled by a false sense of human history, who hold that they will not prevail today. It is not for us to believe that. By our minds we are committed, committed to a world united, before the common peril, in law and in humanity. Acceptance Speech, Army-Navy "Excellence" Award (November 16, 1945)

- Robert Oppenheimer
Context: There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry … There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. Our political life is also predicted on openness. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress. As quoted in "J. Robert Oppenheimer" by L. Barnett, in Life, Vol. 7, no. 9, International Edition (24 October 1949), p. 58; sometimes a partial version (the final sentence) is misattributed to Marcel Proust.