| Authorised form of name | Oppenheimer; Julius Robert (1904 - 1967); theoretical physicist |
| Dates | 1904 - 1967 |
| Nationality | American |
| Place of birth | New York, New York, USA |
| Date of birth | 22/04/1904 |
| Place of death | Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
| Date of death | 18/02/1967 |
| Occupation | Theoretical physicist |
| Research field | Theoretical physics |
| Quantum physics |
| Activity | Education: Alcuin Preparatory School; Ethical Culture Society School (1911); Harvard College (1922); Christ's College, Cambridge (1924); University of Göttingen (1926)
Career:
Sailed for England to do research at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge (1925); invited by Max Born to the University of Göttingen, where he met Nils Bohr and P.A.M. Dirac (1927); returned to the United States, follwing short visits to science centres in Leiden and Zurich, and began teaching physics at the University of California at Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology; became the administrator of the Manhattan project, and chose the plateau of Los Alamos, near Santa Fe, New Mexico as the location (1943); carried out first nuclear explosion, in collaboation with other exceptional scientists, at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, after the surrender of Germany (16 July 1945); resigned his post (October 1945); became head of the Institute for Advanced Study (1947); served as chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (1947-1952), which in October 1949 oppose the development of the hydrogen bomb; accused of having associated with communists in the past, of delaying the naming of Soviet agents, and of opposing the building of the hydrogen bomb (1953); following a security hearing he was declared not guilty of treason but was prohibited access to military secrets and as a consequence, his contract as adviser to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission was cancelled (1954); US President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award of the Atomic Energy Commission (1963); retired from the Institute for Advanced Study (1966); died of throat cancer (1967).
Medals/awards:
Medal for Merit (1946)
Enrico Fermi Award (1963) |
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 03/05/1962 |
| Age at election | 58 |
| Relationships | Parents: Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer, textile importer and Ella (née Friedman), painter.
Siblings: Frank Oppenheimer
Spouse: Katherine "Kitty" Puening (1940)
Children: Peter Oppenheimer (1941); Katherine Oppenheimer (1944) |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 11247
RCN 20002
RCN 15520
RCN 59715
RCN 20001
RCN 10301 |
| OtherInfo | Director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II and is often referred to as the "father of the atomic bomb".
Known for:
Oppenheimer–Snyder model
Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equation
Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit
Oppenheimer–Phillips process
Born–Oppenheimer approximation |
| Source | Sources:
DSB
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1968 vol 14 pp 391-416, plate, by H A Bethe
References:
Bertha Swirles Jeffreys, 'John Arthur Gaunt (1904-1944)' in NR 1990 vol 44 pp 73-79
G V R Born, FRS, 'The wide-ranging family history of Max Born' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 219-262 |
| Code | NA5714 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1962/28 | Oppenheimer, J Robert: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |