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Early life -

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a born as Julius Robert Oppenheimer on April 22, 1904, in New York City.

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Background -

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.

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He came from a wealthy family -

Pictured here with his father, the Oppenheimers made their fortune by importing textiles to the US.

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His family had an impressive art collection -

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.

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His time at Harvard -

During his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, Oppenheimer excelled in Latin, Greek, physics, and chemistry. He even published poetry and studied Eastern philosophy.

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He studied Sanskrit and read Hindu scripture -

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.

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Degrees -

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.

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He was a genius -

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.

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He was the first to propose the existence of black holes -

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.

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Personal life -

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.

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He became head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory -

The laboratory fell under the Manhattan Project, an urgent calling from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb before the Germans.

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Choosing Los Alamos -

In 1942, Oppenheimer chose the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico as the site for the Manhattan Project’s secret laboratory.

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Why New Mexico? -

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.

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Los Alamos and the Trinity test -

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.

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Bombing of Japan -

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.

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Oppenheimer's regret -

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.

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Moral aftermath -

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.

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Oppenheimer also defended the Manhattan Project -

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.

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President Harry S. Truman called him a crybaby -

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."

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He became interested in communism during the Great Depression -

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.

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It was used against him -

After the war, Oppenheimer’s opponents used his leftist associations to smear him as a security threat.

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He argued for more control of nuclear weapons -

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.

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A hearing was held -

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.

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He was blacklisted during the Red Scare and lost his security clearance -

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.

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Oppenheimer was a nominee for the Nobel Prize for Physics -

The Nobel Prize for Physics committee nominated Oppenheimer in 1945, 1951, and 1967. However, the prize was instead awarded to his contemporaries.

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He never regained his security clearance -

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.

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He continued to work in his field -

However, Oppenheimer continued to speak and write about physics and nuclear technology for the rest of his life.

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Final years -

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.

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Over 50 years after his death, the US vacated the security clearance decision -

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: Inventors killed by their own inventions

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