From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Oppenheimer
was an
American
physicist
and the scientific director of the
Manhattan Project
, the
World War II
effort to develop the first
nuclear weapons
, at the secret
Los Alamos laboratory
in
New Mexico
. Known colloquially as "the father of the
atomic bomb
", Oppenheimer lamented the weapon's killing power after it was used to destroy the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
. After the war, he was a chief advisor to the newly-created
Atomic Energy Commission
and used that position to lobby for international
control
of
atomic energy
and to avert the
nuclear arms race
with the
Soviet Union
. After invoking the ire of many politicians and scientists with his outspoken political opinions during the
Red Scare
, he had his
security clearance
revoked in a much-publicized and politicized hearing in
1954
. Though stripped of his political influence, Oppenheimer continued to lecture, write, and work in physics. A decade later,
President
Lyndon B. Johnson
awarded him the
Enrico Fermi Award
as a gesture of
rehabilitation
. (
more...
)
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