J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer    (physicist)
Born	1904-04-22
Died	1967-02-18 (Age 62) Princeton, New Jersey
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University, Christ's College (Cambridge), University of Göttingen
Religion	Jew
Spouse	Katherine "Kitty" Puening Harrison
Member of	Committee on the Present Danger/Members
Interests	Theoretical physics
Developer of the US atomic bomb.

Recollections of the first atomic explosion at Alamogordo, New Mexico on 16 July 1945

Julius Robert Oppenheimer (22 April 1904 – 18 February 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. As the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer is among those who are called the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first nuclear weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The first atomic bomb was detonated on 16 July 1945, at the Trinity test site in New Mexico. Oppenheimer remarked later that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." - See video clip

Oppenheimer was a member of the first Committee on the Present Danger.

Own words

"I have never discussed (nuclear weapons policy) candidly with any responsible group, whether scientists or statesmen, whether citizens or officers of the government, with any group that could steadily look at the facts, that did not come away with a great sense of anxiety and somberness at what they saw."

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb" wrote this in the Bulletin's pages back in 1953 while calling for more public discussion on nuclear weapons.

At the time Oppenheimer could not have imagined that this week – seventy years later – we would be preparing for the release of a Hollywood blockbuster about his life that could serve as a jumping off point for an international conversation on the issue.

Diminishing the threat

Following the war, Oppenheimer joined in attempts to diminish the threat of nuclear weapons. He called for nuclear weapons and technology to be placed under international control, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and advocated for an ethic that acknowledges both the social benefits and potential dangers of scientific advancement. Some of this advocacy he did directly in the pages of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Beyond his writing, the Bulletin has a special connection to Oppenheimer and his legacy. He was the first chair of its Board of Sponsors, a board created by Albert Einstein and the leading scientists of that time.

Security clearance denied

At the height of the “red scare” in 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), then the lead US agency dealing with nuclear issues, refused to reinstate Oppenheimer’s security clearance, thereby ending his government career and falsely branding him as untrustworthy. That decision came after a panel of the AEC Personnel Security Board held 19 days of hearings that constituted, in the most charitable of assessments, a travesty of justice and a violation of basic tenets of due process.

The case against Oppenheimer was based in significant part on his opposition to early US efforts to develop a hydrogen bomb. But as shown by declassified hearing excerpts released in 2014 and other public documents, Oppenheimer “opposed the hydrogen bomb project on technical and military grounds, not out of Soviet sympathies” and considered the development of hydrogen bombs to be redundant, escalatory, and wasteful.

The 1954 decision ended Oppenheimer’s government service and impugned his reputation in a process replete with ethical violations, procedural flaws, and false suggestions that he was a communist, a spy, or both.

AEC decision vacated

On 16 December 2022, the Secretary of the Department of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, issued an order vacating the 1954 AEC decision that revoked Dr J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance.

In a Bulletin Statement on 11 January 2023, President and CEO Rachel Bronson said:

Secretary Granholm’s decision to correct this miscarriage of justice affirms that governments can work to raise the level of debate rather than silence it.

We at the Bulletin applaud Secretary Granholm’s decision during this difficult political moment.

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