J. Robert Oppenheimer
1904 – 1967 American physicist, director of the Los Alamos laboratory
Physicist who directed the Los Alamos laboratory that built the first atomic bombs, later stripped of his security clearance.
- Religion
- Secular, Jewish background
- Affiliations
- Manhattan Project, Institute for Advanced Study, Atomic Energy Commission
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist chosen to lead the Los Alamos laboratory, where the Manhattan Project designed the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war he chaired the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission and argued against building the hydrogen bomb, which drew powerful enemies. In 1954, at the height of the McCarthy era, his security clearance was revoked after a hearing over his past left-wing ties, ending his government role. The decision was formally vacated by the Department of Energy in 2022.
Connections
- associate of Vannevar Bush — Bush oversaw the wartime research program under which he led Los Alamos.
- associate of Vannevar Bush — Oversaw the wartime research program that Oppenheimer led at Los Alamos.
In the timeline
- 1938 Nuclear fission the physicist who applied it to a weapon
- 1942 – 1947 Launch of the Manhattan Project scientific director
- 1946 Atomic Energy Commission and the National Laboratories chair of the General Advisory Committee