Top 10 Facts about Robert J Oppenheimer.

Photo by Ed Wescott – Wikimedia

Top 10 Facts about Robert J Oppenheimer.

He was nicknamed “the father of the atomic bomb” Robert J Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was an American theoretic physicist credited with the creation of the atomic bomb.

He was the son of Julius and Ella Oppenheimer who was both secular Ashkenazi Jews of German descent.

The Oppenheimer were a wealthy family; the father was a textile importer while the mother was described as a near-professional artist.

Robert Oppenheimer was a gifted scientist with the ability to grasp complex theorems from an early age.

1. Robert Oppenheimer was Head of Los Alamos Laboratory.

Leslie Groves (left), military head of the Manhattan Project, with Professor Robert Oppenheimer (right) – Wikimedia

Oppenheimer is among those credited with the making of the first atomic bomb. He was the head of the famous Los Alamos laboratory that was charged with designing nuclear weapons.

The laboratory fell under the Manhattan Project an urgent calling from President Roosevelt to develop a bomb as fast as possible. The U.S need wanted to create theirs before the Germans.

Oppenheimer was head of the team that calculated the chain reaction threshold required for the bomb.

He was present during the nuclear bomb test detonation carried out in the desert of New Mexico in 1945.

The bombs were detonated on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, ending the war and causing widespread damage.

2. Robert Oppenheimer Regretted his Role in the Creation of the Atomic Bomb.

Image by Alexander Antropov from Pixabay

When the first atomic bomb went off at the test site Robert Oppenheimer was there albeit at a safe distance. 

He afterwards commented that the world will never be the same again.

Oppenheimer said all he could remember  at the time was a line from the Sanskrit (Hindu scripture)”now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

The U.S army detonated the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

In August 1945 the US detonated nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and three days later over Nagasaki.   The bombs killed tens of thousands of Japanese people.

Oppenheimer on learning of the devastation opposed the bombs’ further development and resigned from the Los Alamos Laboratory posting.

Together with his colleagues felt that the second bomb was unnecessary.

He wrote and hand-delivered a letter to the Secretary of War Henry Stimson in which he strongly proposed the ban of nuclear weapons in the arena of war.

3. Oppenheimer Was a  Nobel Prize for Physics Nominee. 

The Nobel Prize for Physics committee nominated Oppenheimer in 1945, 1951 and 1967.

Sadly, the prize was awarded to his contemporaries  Many physicists believe that his most important contribution was gravitational collapse and it was worth the award.

His peers did not take up his work in his lifetime.

Notably, though, Oppenheimer worked with  Ernest O Lawrence an experimental physicist whose work was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

4. Robert Oppenheimer was Casanova.

Photo by ETH Library –Wikimedia

Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist and administrator but his romantic life was a disaster. The man carried on many scandalous sexual affairs.

Most of his affairs became public knowledge because he was under C.I.A surveillance. He impregnated Kitty Harrison a married woman whom she wed in 1940.

He had an affair with Ruth Tolman wife to a Manhattan Project colleague, physicist Richard Tolman. Although married he continued his long term affair with Jean Tatlock.

5. Oppenheimer and his Work Inspired Hollywood.

photo by ETH library – Wikimedia

The genre of war films is important to different nations as it provides an avenue to rewrite history however you deem fit.

The atomic bomb ended the Second World War and sparked a global race to acquire nuclear weapons. The most notable face of the Los Alamos scientist was Robert Oppenheimer

 The Manhattan Project fascinated Hollywood and is the subject of several movies.  Oppenheimer played a leading role in movies like The Beginning of the End (1947) and Fat Man and Little Boy (1989).

The BBC TV series Oppenheimer (1980) was more successful critically; it scooped three BAFTA awards that year.

6. Robert Oppenheimer fact: He was a Genius.

Einstein and Oppenheimer Photo by USG – Wikimedia

Another fact on Oppenheimer was that he was a multi-talented scholar.

In elementary school, where he completed the third and fourth grades in one year and skipped half of the eighth grade.

He studied Chemistry at Harvard College but become interested in experimental physics.

He went ahead and graduated with distinction in three years. Oppenheimer was the youngest member of the New York Mineralogical Society.

7. Oppenheimer became a Nuclear Power Regulation Lobbyist.

Recieving the Fermi award Photo by USG –Wikimedia

That Robert Oppenheimer was a nuclear power specialist is a fact. He had direct involvement in the making of the only nuclear bomb deployed in a war.

Therefore, was aware of the untapped potential of the weapon.

Nuclear energy has many other uses apart from war. He was appointed to  Chair the Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

He used his strategic position to lobby for global nuclear power. Oppenheimer’s opposition to the development of a hydrogen bomb led to the revocation of his security clearances.

8. Oppenheimer Could Comprehend the Language of gods.

Sanskrit written on the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur Photo by Mathew T Rader- Wikimedia

An interesting fact about Oppenheimer is he took time to learn Sanskrit. It is the sacred language of Hinduism.

Sanskrit means perfected or refined and is one of the oldest human languages.

In the Hindu religion, they believe it is the language of communication for their celestial beings. Arthur Ryder, a renowned Indologist, encourage him to study  Hinduism.

Like the sciences he learnt everything there was on the topic. He admitted that the Bhagavad Gita informed his philosophy.

9. The CIA had Oppenheimer Under Surveillance.

Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash

During the period in which Oppenheimer was working on the nuclear project, the Second World War was in full gear.  As a result, countries were grouped into two formations i.e. Axis powers and Allied powers.

America was in the Allied camp and considered the axis countries’ systems of government belligerent.

The security organs were alert against domestic infiltration by communists and fascists.

Oppenheimer was a communist sympathizer.  He contributed money to communist groups and had a close association with known members.

His work gave him access to classified information hence the close monitoring.

For his communist leanings, the FBI added Oppenheimer’s name to its Custodial Detention List for arrest in case of declaration of national emergency. He denied any connections to communists during interrogations.

10. Robert Oppenheimer Died of Cancer.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Oppenheimer worked on radioactive materials for many years without incident.

However,  later in life, he was diagnosed with throat cancer attributed to heavy cigarette smoking.

The scientist underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy in vain. 

Oppenheimer died and was  cremated in 1967.  Over 600 prominent persons attended his requiem. 

The facts enumerated above paint a picture of a passionate scholar with an inherent ability to internalize concepts in diverse academic fields.

He attempted to understand the universe both the physical and the divine realm. 

Furthermore, he was a leader of his time with a larger than life presence.

Oppenheimer’s work in nuclear energy and later the control of its use is still relevant in the present world.