J. Robert Oppenheimer
In three years Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor's degree in physics. This was in 1925, only 21 years after the great physicists birth in New York City. Less than one year later, he published his first paper with the title On the Quantum Theory of Vibration-Rotation Bands. This was a study of frequencies and intensities of molecular band spectra derived from the new mechanics, discovered by Paul Adrian Maurice Dirac, Erwin Schrodinger, and Werner Karl Heisenberg only one year earlier. Indeed, Oppenheimer was quick to pick up new ideas in theoretical physics.
In 1929, he accepted academic positions both at UC Berkeley and at Cal Tech. From then to
1942 he divided his time between the two institutions, and his long list of papers gives proof to his achievemnets during this period. He had a keen sense for what was the next step that needed to be taken in nuclear physics.
He was also a great teacher; his infuence on his pupils was enhanced by his perceptive interest in
people. It was this interest in personal relationships that helped him become a good leader for the
Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In March 1943, Oppenheimer was assigned to the scientific directorship of the Los Alamos National
Laboratory, but in reality, he had been working on this project for some time before this was official.
When word came from Niels Bohr about nuclear fission, Oppenheimer started thinking about the
practical release of nuclear energy.
At that time in 1942, there were many universities in the United States that were working on the
fission problem. Oppenheimer organized a conference in Berkeley attended by many first rate
theoreticians, including Edward Teller, who, during the conference, first suggested the possibility of a
nuclear bomb. A theoretical group led by Oppenheimer proceeded to work on the potential of an
atomic bomb.
When the United States government brought the atomic energy work under the auspices of the army
and put General Leslie Groves in charge of the project (code named the "Manhattan Project"), Oppenheimer suggested to Groves that work on the project take place in a single laboratory. He knew that having the dispersion of scientists hampered the speed of work. The workers, including all of the theoretical physicists as well as the chemical engineers, metallurgists, and all of the other support personnel should be grouped together in one facility. Groves accepted the proposal, and on Oppenheimer's advice chose the site of a former boy's boarding school in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The U.S. decided to develop the atomic bomb based on the fear they had for the safety of the nation. In August 1939 nuclear physicists sent manuscripts to Albert Einstein in fear the Germany might use the new knowledge of fission on the uranium nucleus as way to construct weapons. In response, on August 2, 1939, Einstein sent a letter to President Roosevelt concerning the pressing matter to use uranium to create such weapons before Germany (Doc A-1). To support the development of the atomic bomb, President Roosevelt approved the production of the bomb following the receipt that the bomb is feasible on January 19, 1942. From this day to December of 1942, many laboratories and ...
He studied at Harvard and was good in the classics, such as Latin, Greek, chemistry and Physics. He had published works in poetry and studied Oriental philosophy. He graduated in 1925, it took him only three years, and went to England to do research at Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He didn’t like it there and left at the end of 1925. A man named Max Born asked him to attend Gottingen University where he met prominent European physicists. Oppenheimer studied quantum mechanics in Europe in the 1920s. He learned from Ernest Rutherford, one of the pioneers of atomic theory; and from Werner Heisenberg and Pau...
The purpose of developing this weapon was first and foremost winning the war as quickly as possible. In addition to securing world peace, the United States’ future as a world leader was also at stake. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed a committee to research the possibility of using atomic energy military purposes. By the time the United States entered the war in December 1941, this research was given priority and the project was extended throughout the course of the war. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the Manhattan Project, only a select few knew of the plan to develop the atomic bomb.
William Shockley was born on February 13, 1910 in London, England. He is most famously noted for winning the Nobel Prize in physics in 1956. He won this for being the co-inventor of the transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain. Shockley’s parents were both Americans. His father, William Hillman Shockley, was a mining engineer born in Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Bradford, was a federal deputy surveyor of mineral lands. They returned to America when William was just a baby. They both were very encouraging for his love and passion for science, as well as his neighbor who was a professor of physics at Stanford. He got his B. Sc. Degree at the California Institute of Technology in 1932. Four years later he got his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He wrote his doctoral thesis on the energy band structure of sodium chloride. The title of this thesis was “Calculation of Electron Wave Functions in Sodium Chloride Crystals.”
The Manhattan Project was a research project, that created the United States first nuclear weapon, and led to its creation of the nuclear department during world War II. The M.A.U.D. group was created in 1940. Also, M.A.U.D was the secret name given to the group and it came from a phrase in a message from Niel Bohr (Cohen). This group produced a report that said that producing a fission bomb was possible to make. James Chadwick, a new member of the British M.A.U.D group, later wrote that at that time he realized that a nuclear bomb was able to be built in his lifetime. After being taken by the Germans convinced others that they still had the lead in developing a fission weapon.
physics. The work of Ernest Rutherford, H. G. J. Moseley, and Niels Bohr on atomic
While Robert’s name has become synonymous with the atomic bomb there is more to the story than that. J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904. After graduating from Harvard and studying under Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge University, Oppenheimer received his Ph.D. in Germany in 1925. In 1929, he returned to the United States to teach at the University of California Berkeley and at Cal Tech.
In the 1920s the new quantum and relativity theories were engaging the attentions of science. That mass was equivalent to energy and that matter could be both wavelike and corpuscular carried implications seen only dimly at that time. Oppenheimer's early research was devoted in particular to energy processes of subatomic particles, including electrons, positrons, and cosmic rays. Since quantum theory had been proposed only a few years before, the university post provided him an excellent opportunity to devote his entire career to the exploration and development of its full significance. In addition, he trained a whole generation of U.S. physicists, who were greatly affected by his qualities of leadership and intellectual independence.
“Early in 1939, The worlds scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting the uranium atom and word spread quickly and several countries began to duplicate the experiment.” Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt that Germany may have already built an atomic bomb. Roosevelt did not see an urgency for such a project, but agreed to proceed slowly. In 1941, British scientists pushed America to develop an atomic weapon. America’s effort was slow until 1942 when Colonel Leslie Groves took over. He quickly chose personnel, production sites and set schedules to invent the atomic
In 1941, The United States began an atomic bomb program called the “Manhattan Project.” The main objective of the “Manhattan Project” was to research and build an atomic bomb before Germany could create and use one against the allied forces during World War II. German scientists had started a similar research program four years before the United States began so the scientists of the “Manhattan Project” felt a sense of urgency throughout their work (Wood “Men … Project”).
Everything began back in the late thirties and early forties when the United States learned of the Nazi science program’s attempts to make the world’s most powerful
The Manhattan Project was the code name for a science project conducted during World War II by the United States with the partial support of the United Kingdom and Canada. The ultimate goal of the project was the development of the first atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. The scientific research was directed by physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer while security and military operations were carried out by General Leslie Richard Groves. The project was carried out in many research centers being the most important of them the Manhattan Engineer District located on the site now known as Los Alamos Manhattan Project was the code name for a science project conducted during World National Laboratory. The project brought together a wealth of scientific luminaries as Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, etc. . . . Since, after experiments in Germany before the war, it was known that atomic fission was possible and that the Nazis were already working on its own nuclear program, several bright minds met. Many Jewish ex...
In 1939 rumor came to the U.S. that Germans had split the atom. The threat of the Nazis developing a nuclear weapon prompted President Roosevelt to establish The Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer set up a research lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico and brought the best minds in physics to work on the problem of creating a nuclear weapon. Although most the research and development was done in Los Alamos, there were over 30 other research locations throughout the project. After watching the first nuclear bomb test Oppenheimer was quoted as saying simply “It works.”.
The Manhattan Project took place during World War II, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Germany was already developing an atomic weapon. In 1939, Albert Einstein wrote to president Franklin Roosevelt, explaining an idea he had for developing a nuclear weapon, and saying they should begin to research it. Roosevelt agreed with Einstein, and organized a research committee. In 1942, Roosevelt created a secret government project to build a nuclear weapon. This project was titled the Manhattan Project, and was the largest secret government project in US history.
On August 2, 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt received a letter from the famous, German physicist Albert Einstein. It stated and explained the potential of using uranium as a weapon of mass destruction, and that the United States would be wise to begin funding a project for this (Kross). Franklin D. Roosevelt didn't see a need to start full force on a project like this until after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Congress declares on both Japan and Germany, Franklin D. Roosevelt puts General Leslie R. Groves in charge of the project. Groves named the project: "So that top-secret endeavor to build the atomic bomb got the most boring of cover names: The Manhattan Engineer District, in time shortened to The Manhattan Project"(Broad). As the project grew the city of Manhattan's role shrank and by 1943,"… the Manhattan Project was not physically located in New York City but scattered across the country" (Kelly 219). The first "secret city" was Los Alamos in California and Groves was so concerned about secrecy, people actually had a pass they had to carry with them when they left because without it, coming back into the secret gated city of Los Alamos was nearly impossible. Most of the time even with the secret cities, many worked at universities or even their own businesses: "It was supersecret, at least 5,000 people were coming and going to work, knowing only enough to get the job done" (Broad). People also literally had to up root themselves and move all the way across the country to Santa Fe California and they could not tell anyone where they were going. Not only was there just scientists, there was physicists, engineers, military personnel and families. At one point the Columbia University had 700 people employed in the project and ...