Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist. He is often considered as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ for his role in the Manhattan Project—World War II. In 2023, his biopic movie, Oppenheimer is released.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Early Life
J. Robert Oppenheimer was born on 22nd April 1904 in New York City, U.S. to Ellas, a painter, and Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer, a wealthy textile importer. Robert had a younger brother Frank who also became a physicist. Robert’s family was nonobservant Jews.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Death
Robert was a chain smoker who was diagnosed with throat cancer in late 1965. In late 1966, After inconclusive surgery, he underwent unsuccessful radiation treatment and chemotherapy. On 15th February 1967, he fell into a coma and died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, on February 18, aged 62.
In October 1972, Robert’s wife Kitty died aged 62 from an intestinal infection complicated by a pulmonary embolism. Oppenheimer’s ranch in New Mexico
J. Robert Oppenheimer Popular Culture
On 21st July 2023, a biopic movie Oppenheimer is to be released globally by Universal Pictures.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Career
Educational work
Robert worked closely with Nobel Prize-winning experimental physicist Ernest O. Lawrence and his cyclotron pioneers, helping them understand the data their machines were producing at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 1936, The University of California, Berkeley promoted him to full professor at a salary of $3,300 a year
Scientific work
Robert did important research in theoretical astronomy like general relativity and nuclear theory, nuclear physics, spectroscopy, and quantum field theory, including its extension into quantum electrodynamics. In 1926, concerned the quantum theory of molecular band spectra. He developed a method to carry out calculations of its transition probabilities.
He made important contributions to the theory of cosmic ray showers and started work that eventually led to descriptions of quantum tunneling.
In 1933, he learned Sanskrit and met the Indologist Arthur W. Ryder at Berkeley. He eventually read the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads in the original Sanskrit, and deeply pondered them. Later, he cited the Gita as one of the books that most shaped his philosophy of life.
Manhattan Project
On 9th October 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a crash program to develop an atomic bomb for World War II.
In June 1942, the US Army established the Manhattan Project to handle its part in the atom bomb project and began the process of transferring responsibility from the Office of Scientific Research and Development to the military.
After the joint work of the scientists at Los Alamos resulted in the world’s first nuclear explosion, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on 16th July 1945.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Education
Robert received his early education at the Alcuin Preparatory School, and later at Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Oppenheimer then went on to study at Harvard University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry. He continued his studies the summa cum laude, graduating in three years.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Relationship
In 1936, Robert was in a relationship with Jean Tatlock, psychiatrist, and physician, the daughter of a Berkeley literature professor and a student at Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1939, after a tempestuous relationship, the couple broke up.
In August 1939, Robert met Katherine ‘Kitty’ Puening, a radical Berkeley student and, they got married on 1st November 1940. The couple has their first child, Peter, born in May 1941, and their second, Katherine ‘Toni’, was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on December 7, 1944.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Net Worth
He was one of the richest Physicists & listed as the most popular Physicist. According to our analysis, he has a net worth of $5 Million.
J. Robert Oppenheimer Physical Stats
| Height (approx.) | in centimeters- 175 cm in meters- 1.75 m in feet & inches- 5’ 9” |
| Eye Colour | Brown |
| Hair Colour | Black |
J. Robert Oppenheimer Bio/Wiki
| Name | J. Robert Oppenheimer |
| Full Name | Julius Robert Oppenheimer |
| Date of Birth | 22nd April 1904 |
| Birthplace | New York City, U.S. |
| Date of Death | 18th February 1967 |
| Place of Death | Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Profession | Theoretical Physicist |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Relationships & More | |
| Marital Status | married |
| Family | |
| Spouse | Katherine ‘Kitty’ Puening, German-American Botanist (m. 1940–1967) |
| Children | Peter Oppenheimer, Katherine Oppenheimer |
| Parents | Mother- Ellas Father- Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer |
| Siblings | Frank, a physicist |
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