Julius robert oppenheimer years of life. He gained fame as a "creator of death": Robert Oppenheimer

), where he takes British citizenship and changes his name to Ernest... Returning to South Africa on September 25, 1917, with the support of an American bank Jp morgan founds a corporation Anglo american, which has long remained the world's largest mining concern. In E. Oppenheimer, he also became the head of a diamond mining company founded by Cecil Rhodes De beers, then experiencing financial difficulties. To this day, the presidency DeDe Beersremains in the family ownership of the Oppenheimer surname.

However, the most powerful creature in the Oppenheimer empire was Central Selling Organization (CSO)also called by the press Syndicate, which eventually achieved control over 90% of world diamond sales. During the World Crisis in 1930, Oppenheimer bought up the diamond markets and founded CSO... Usually De beers sent diamonds mined all over the world to London by sea; there they were sorted and sent in smaller batches to large traders and cutters.

Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (Harry Frederick Oppenheimer; born October 28, Kimberley, South Africa - died August 19, Johannesburg, South Africa) - Former President of the International Diamond Processing Corporation De beers , in 2004 was elected 60th place in the list of "Great South Africans".

Biography

Harry Oppenheimer for a quarter of a century remained as President of the Anglo-American Corporation ( Anglo american) until he left this post in 1982, at the same time he was also the president of the international diamond processing corporation De beers for 27 years, leaving this position in 1984. His son Nick Oppenheimer became Deputy President of the Anglo-American Corporation in 1983 and President of De Beers since 1988.

For a short time (from 1948 to 1957), he was the speaker from the opposition in such areas as the economy, constitution and finance. His negative attitudes towards apartheid were widely known at the time, as were his philanthropic activities and his entrepreneurial spirit. He also provided support for philanthropy in Israel.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he funded the anti-apartheid Progressive Federal Party, which later merged with the Democratic Alliance.

(born in 1908 - d. in 2000)

South African mining magnate and patriarch of the 20th century diamond business. President of the Anglo-American Corporation, which specializes in the extraction of precious metals, and the De Beers Consolidated Mines diamond cartel. The creator of a one-channel system for the sale of rough diamonds, which contributed to the price stabilization of the world market and increased profitability of the entire industry Nominal head of the University of Cape Town, as well as the Urban Foundation. Owner of a fortune of about $ 3 billion.

At the end of the 19th century, when the first diamonds were found in South Africa, prospectors flooded the country. Precious stones began to be found in one area or another, but the richest in crystals were the lands of the de Birov settlers. The farm, once bought for 50 pounds, the brothers Johannes and Diederik profitably, it seemed to them, were sold to a syndicate of miners for 6,300 pounds. Very soon they regretted that they had made such a bargain, but since 1888, the largest transnational corporation "De Beers Consolidated Mines" began to bear their name. The ambitious Englishman Cecil John Rohde became its chairman. The company's nominal capital, which was initially £ 100,000, reached £ 14.5 million in a couple of years. On the one hand, the increase in the volume of diamond production played into the hands of the producer, but on the other hand, it brought down prices and harmed market participants.

To be successful, it was necessary to create a deficit, which was not difficult to calculate. The main buyers of diamonds at that time were grooms. According to statistics, there were approximately 8 million weddings a year in Europe and America. Consequently, roughly the same amount of diamonds had to be sold. After some simple calculations, Rode ordered to cut sales by 40%. Some of the mines had to be closed, and thousands of miners and cutters were left without work. Cecil, however, didn't care much. De Beers kept the market on a starvation diet, which made it possible to methodically raise prices.

The system created by Rhodes collapsed at the beginning of the 20th century, when new deposits were discovered on the African continent, the owners of which were interested in quickly selling their goods. Perhaps Cecil would have found some kind of balance of interests of all parties, but in 1902 he died suddenly, leaving no successor. Not one large company collapsed at this time, but De Beers held out.

Two years after Rhodes' death, the leadership of the once powerful company had to cede control of diamond mining to the board of directors of the new Premier mine. 1907 saw the collapse of the US stock exchanges, and diamond production had to be cut. To the great chagrin of the De Beers leadership, in 1912 new rich diamond deposits were found in the desert on the territory of the German colony - South-West Africa (now Namibia). Everything indicated that De Beers had come to an end. Rhodes' longtime rival, Ernst Oppenheimer, was destined to act as the company's savior.

The son of a small cigar trader from the suburbs of Frankfurt am Main, Ernst began his career as a jeweler's apprentice, sorting rough diamonds and became a good appraiser. At the age of 17, he moved to London, where he worked for 5 years in a trading company engaged in the sale of precious stones. In 1902 he was sent to the diamond capital of the world - Kimberley. There was already where to turn around, and Ernst began to trade in pebbles. He managed to become a partner in several artisanal miners' artels, primarily in those operating in German South-West Africa. An ambitious plan has matured in the head of the young businessman - to revive the power of De Beers. Naturally, after the controlling stake in the company is in the hands.

With the end of the First World War, Ernst's finest hour came. First, he organized the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa, specializing in the extraction of gold, platinum and other precious metals. The initial share capital was £ 1 million, half of which was raised in the US and the other in England and South Africa. In 1919, with the support of financial tycoon John Morgan, Ernst founded Consolidated Day-Mond Mines of South West Africa. This allowed him to buy up most of the diamond concessions previously owned by German monopolies. Ernst Oppenheimer's business style was no different from Cecil Rhodes.

The new economic crisis has played into the hands of an ambitious entrepreneur. A sharp drop in prices in 1921 led to the collapse of the entire diamond industry. New producers of raw materials - Angola, Belgian Congo, the Gold Coast - have simply disrupted the market. When the panic-stricken industrialists of these countries began to sell diamonds at bargain prices, cutters and traders rushed to buy them and soon began to go broke, unable to find a market for their goods. Customers were extremely suspicious of the record price drop and simply stopped buying jewelry.

While buyers were pondering whether to invest in something that is constantly falling in price, and jewelers were retraining into appraisers of stolen goods, Oppenheimer took his time buying up De Beers shares, which were now worth less than the securities of the candle factories. In 1929, a controlling stake in the company fell into his hands. And Ernst set about restoring De Beers to its former glory, following the postulates of the founding father.

Most of the mines were closed first. Special planes began to fly over the deposits of South-West Africa, catching single miners. Thanks to these measures, it was possible to suppress the uncontrolled supply of diamonds to America and Europe. Oppenheimer's London Diamond Syndicate has convinced major diamond producers to sell rough through him. Now prices could still be dictated. By the beginning of the 30s. 94% of the diamond market was again in the hands of De Beers.

The crisis of 1934, and then the war, prevented the idea from being brought to its logical end. Closed mines "De Beers" and the "Syndicate" itself began to revive only after 10 years. But even during the war, Oppenheimer did not sit idle: he negotiated and signed contracts with large diamond producers and small dealers. It was then that the structure of the family company was created, which has remained unchanged to this day. After the death of Ernst Oppenheimer, his son Harry took over as president.

The future "father of South African business" Harry Oppenheimer was born on October 28, 1908 in Kimberley, the city of diamonds that gave the name to the bluish diamond-bearing rock - kimberlite. The home was dominated by an entrepreneurial atmosphere, where the yardstick for success, progress and behavior was making money. After graduating from the privileged private school Charterhouse in England, Oppenheimer Jr. studied politics, philosophy and economics at the prestigious Christ Church College, Oxford.

In 1931, Harry returned home and began working for the Anglo American Corporation, a business founded by his father in 1917, which has since grown into a financially extremely successful venture. It was a good but difficult school. The years of the “Great Depression” became a very difficult time for the company, as the precious metals market was practically paralyzed. Oppenheimer later said that the main items of the corporation's income at that time were previously unused financial assets.

However, difficulties can teach a lot. The crisis has clearly demonstrated the need to ensure the liquidity of the goods and to have free funds available. At the same time, the father's decisive refusal to admit defeat brought up in his son the same perseverance and perseverance. In 1939, Harry volunteered for the front, where he distinguished himself during operations in the deserts of Libya: an intelligence officer marched in the vanguard of the British 8th Army.

At the end of World War II, Oppenheimer Jr. became Managing Director of the Anglo-American Corporation. In 1945, he led a team that was faced with the daunting task of opening seven new mines at the same time in gold mines in the Orange Republic. In the 1950s, when the mines were already operating at full capacity, Harry was actively involved in expanding the corporation's scope of operations for copper mining in Northern Rhodesia and gold mining in western Rand. He was also one of the founders of the first commercial bank in the country and the first "discount house", which in turn gave impetus to the creation of the money market in southern Africa.

A whole series of successes of the young businessman brought the corporation to a leading position in South Africa and allowed it to become one of the largest mining companies in the world.

All this time, Oppenheimer took an active part in the political life of the country, and in 1948 won the parliamentary elections as the candidate of the Unionist Party from Kimberley County. His speeches in the Legislative Assembly were distinguished by the clarity and persuasiveness of the arguments presented. He established himself as a highly respected leader from the opposition, whose views on various economic, financial and constitutional issues were highly regarded.

After his father's death in 1957, Harry decided to leave politics in order to devote himself entirely to the family business, but continued to speak publicly on various issues, always expressing his point of view clearly, decisively and impartially and adhering to a principled position. “I don’t think that the head of a large company should delve into all the details of the political struggle between different parties,” he said, “but I think that if you are leading a large company in a relatively small country, you will inevitably face the fact that you have to work in an environment where politics and business are closely intertwined. This is indeed inevitable, and I believe that a businessman is obliged to express his point of view on the most important and politically sensitive issues, such as the issue of equality in employment rights between black and white people in the country. "

In 1964, saving the country from hundreds of economic devastation, Oppenheimer introduced Afrikaners (descendants of Dutch settlers) into the mining business, until that time almost exclusively belonged to the British. Harry sold a controlling stake in General Mining to the Afrikaner. IN; 70s Oppenheimer became the figurehead of the University of Cape Town and chairman of the Urban Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing education and housing for the country's black population.

In 1984, he established the Brenthurst Library, where one could freely access his collection of rare books, manuscripts and paintings, which Oppenheimer himself called "history notes." In February 1998, when the country was swept by a wave of crime and emigration, Harry announced that "if the ship sinks, then you need to save yourself." However, he himself was not going to jump overboard before the ship actually began to sink, "because he always considered himself a South African." Unfortunately, the heroic story of an anti-apartheid fighter, savior of South Africa and a great public figure ends here. As for the history of life! As the cruel and calculating entrepreneur that Oppenheimer has always been, it was more eventful.

As people who know the businessman recalled, Harry at all times was primarily a businessman. Although, according to a number of responses, he fought to provide his workers with better conditions and high wages, in the first place, in his own words, “business profitability was invariably”. Black employees in his factories always received much less than whites and were forced to live away from their families. And in general, the notorious apartheid government, as Western news agencies assure, kept afloat until 1994 only thanks to Oppenheimer's money and advice.

In 1939, Oppenheimer traveled to New York to meet with representatives of the advertising agency NWE Is. He rode with the firm intention to change people's ideas about diamonds: it was necessary to make sure that this stone ceased to be a trinket of the rich, and became an everyday commodity, without which ordinary people could not do. The agency issued posters showing the spectacular actresses wearing rings and earrings donated by De Beers. The posters said that diamonds give attractiveness and determine a person's social status. The advertisement was aimed at the fairer sex. But it turned out to be no less effective for men who felt like conquering kings who donate diamonds to their princesses. Continuing the advertising campaign, Oppenheimer solemnly presented a huge stone to Queen Elizabeth, wife of George VI, who visited Africa in late 1940.

Harry himself came up with the advertising slogan "A diamond is forever", launched the idea of \u200b\u200ba diamond as an "eternal gift of love" to the masses, and introduced into the subcortex of the population of developed countries the idea that it is customary to give a ring for an engagement worth at least three months' salary. He developed the principles of trade, in accordance with which the cartel, which produced raw materials, that is, diamonds, spent huge amounts of money to stimulate the sale of finished goods - diamonds. Oppenheimer himself believed that a diamond is an absolutely useless thing, and there is only one way to keep its price - by making one believe in its originality, uniqueness and mystical property of preserving love. In other words, he came up with an illusion that still feeds millions of people around the world.

Oppenheimer also came up with another great idea behind the diamond business: the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating reserves - the so-called De Beers stocks - where stones were stored, the appearance of which on the market could bring down prices. Harry was convinced that the diamond market should not be spontaneous and that it should be tightly regulated. Moreover, he took on this mission upon himself.

Oppenheimer's clever policies made diamonds relatively inexpensive. In 1960, Harry signed a contract for the purchase of diamonds from the USSR. Russian diamonds are mostly small, but of very high quality. Before that, De Beers convinced people to buy rings with large stones, but after another advertisement, the demand for rings with small diamonds scattered on them sharply increased. And it is no coincidence: the cartel began to convince that small pebbles look no less impressive.

Using such methods for many decades, "De Beers" received not only its own benefit, but also gave the opportunity to develop and prosper intermediaries, small businessmen, owners of jewelry stores. It had such a huge assortment of rough diamonds that OPEC could only envy it: after all, the creation of a "diamond fund" is much cheaper than storing oil reserves.

In the 60s and 70s. under the leadership of Oppenheimer, the diamond industry developed successfully and rapidly, and the Anglo-American Corporation became one of the largest international investment companies. The conglomerate continued to expand its diamond and gold mining, manufacturing and agricultural activities in South Africa. At the same time, the mining, production and financial structure "Charter Consolidated", located in London, as well as the "Minerals and Resources" corporation, which was then located in Bermuda, and now has its headquarters in Luxembourg, were created at the international level. The creation of manufacturing plants such as Highveld Steel and Vanadium and Mondi Peipe showcases both Harry's entrepreneurial ability and the fact that he has advocated organic growth through the development of large mining projects.

Despite its enormous size, the Anglo-American Group retained much of the character of a family business, which once again confirmed Oppenheimer's personal qualities as a leader who managed the company perfectly and created a loyalty and desire in employees to work with him. His humane approach to people served as a guarantee that the company was constantly reviewing and increasing wages, improving working conditions. Harry all the time repeated the words of his father, who saw the purpose of the corporation in "providing profit for our shareholders and real assistance to the growth of the welfare of the countries in which we operate."

One of his progressive activities as the leader of the South African business community was the creation of the Anglo-American Corporation and De Beers Chairman Fund. The Foundation has developed and funded various programs, mainly in the field of education, which, according to Oppenheimer, is a driving force and also makes a huge contribution to the development of the social sphere in general. Another example of such an initiative was the formation of the Urban Programs Fund following the 1976 Soweto riots, which worked to improve social and work conditions for urban blacks in South Africa.

One of the most prominent businessmen in the world, Oppenheimer was chairman of the Anglo-American Group for a quarter of a century and President of De Beers for 27 years. He served on the board of directors of the diamond cartel from December 1934 to November 1994, when his resignation was officially announced in Kimberley. In his farewell address to the employees of the company's head office, Harry said: “We must believe and prove with our work that achieving success in business and striving for a free and just society are not mutually exclusive goals, but rather two sides of the same, like two sides medals ".

Oppenheimer and his wife Bridget lived at his home in Johannesburg, enjoying an excellent collection of rare books and manuscripts, as well as reprints from rarities, many of which are published by the Brenthurst Press, which he created specifically for this purpose. He often spent time on a farm near Kimberley, where he grew orchids and the country's best racehorses, and at a holiday home in La Lucia near Durban.

But all this time, the "Old King of Diamonds", as he was often called in the business world, did not part with his favorite business, making it a hobby. He kept an eye on Nicky’s son, who headed the corporation, from afar, and contemplated a new strategy for doing business in today's economic environment.

Oppenheimer once said about his father, Sir Ernst: “He successfully solved the problems of his time and left behind in Anglo-American an organization that absorbed his spirit, his strength and flexible approach to work, construction and implementation of his goals, even with circumstances that he could not foresee. And by this, of course, he deserved that share of immortality that any mortal on earth can only dream of. " The same can be said for Harry himself.

For about 50 years, De Beers has played the role of the creator of the diamond market - omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. The corporation stockpiled surplus diamonds, forbade partners to increase production if the market was threatened with oversaturation, and regulated demand for certain types of diamonds through finely tuned advertising campaigns. Whole countries were completely dependent on relations with the Oppenheimer empire. The buyers were afraid and angry, but kept quiet.

And in 1998, the cartel began to slowly sell off its stocks. This was the beginning of the implementation of the new De Beers strategies, which Harry officially announced a month before his death. The business concept he invented provided for refusal to create so-called stocks, direct access to the diamond market (previously Oppenheimer's position was that since the interests of the miner and the cutter do not coincide, jewelry making should not be done), as well as an increase in market share by introducing into the most significant deposits.

Now it is difficult to say what exactly was the contribution of the "Old King" to the emergence of a new concept, which, in fact, crossed out the previous strategy, which he himself created. Perhaps Harry actually gave his cartel a mission for the next half century, and then descended into the realm of shadows. This happened on August 19, 2000, when, unexpectedly for everyone, Oppenheimer suddenly died in the best private clinic in Johannesburg.

Today, the De Beers company controls, according to various estimates, from 60 to 75% of the world diamond market. It sells roughly $ 4.8 billion a year in rough diamonds. Twenty mining enterprises of the corporation conduct prospecting and exploration of deposits in 18 countries of the world. Currently De Beers mines only diamonds for jewelry purposes, since it is cheaper to use artificial ones for industrial needs. However, global diamond prices are more stable than platinum, gold and oil. At the same time, over the past 15 years, diamonds have risen in price by more than 60%.

In the XXI century. The Anglo-American Corporation and De Beers will be ruled by Harry Oppenheimer's grandson, Jonathan.

Created by 28 Nov 2013

Julius Robert Oppenheimer. Born April 22, 1904 - died February 18, 1967. American theoretical physicist, professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, member of the US National Academy of Sciences (since 1941). He is widely known as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, within the framework of which the first samples of nuclear weapons were developed during the Second World War, because of this Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb."

The atomic bomb was first tested in New Mexico in July 1945. Later, Oppenheimer recalled that at that moment the words from the Bhagavad Gita came to his mind: "If the radiance of a thousand suns flashed in the sky, it would be like the brilliance of the Almighty ... I became Death, the destroyer of Worlds."

After World War II, he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He also became a senior advisor to the newly formed US Atomic Energy Commission and, using his position, advocated international nuclear energy control to prevent nuclear proliferation and the nuclear race. This anti-war stance angered a number of politicians during the second wave of the Red Menace. As a result, after a well-known politicized hearing in 1954, he was denied access to secret work. Since then, having no direct political influence, he continued to lecture, write, and work in the field of physics. Ten years later, the president awarded the scientist the Enrico Fermi Prize as a sign of political rehabilitation. The award was presented after Kennedy's death.

Oppenheimer's most significant advances in physics include the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer-Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and the first prediction of quantum tunneling.

Together with his students, he made an important contribution to the modern theory of neutron stars and black holes, as well as to the solution of certain problems of quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and the physics of cosmic rays.

Oppenheimer was a teacher and propagandist of science, the founding father of the American school of theoretical physics, which became world famous in the 30s of the XX century.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904 into a Jewish family. His father, a wealthy fabric importer Julius S. Oppenheimer (Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer, 1865-1948), immigrated to the United States from Hanau (Germany) in 1888. The family of her mother, Paris-educated artist Ella Friedman (d. 1948), also immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1840s. Robert had a younger brother, Frank, who also became a physicist.

In 1912, the Oppenheimers moved to Manhattan, in an apartment on the eleventh floor of 155 Riverside Drive, off West 88th Street. The area is known for its luxurious mansions and townhouses. The family's collection of paintings included originals by Pablo Picasso and Jean Vuillard and at least three originals by Vincent van Gogh.

Oppenheimer attended Alcuin Preparatory School for some time, then, in 1911, he entered the School of the Society for Ethical Culture. It was founded by Felix Adler to foster education promoted by the Ethical Culture Movement, whose slogan was "Deed before Creed". Robert's father was a member of this society for many years, serving on the board of trustees from 1907 to 1915.

Oppenheimer was a versatile student, interested in English and French literature and especially mineralogy. He completed the program of the third and fourth grades in one year and in six months finished the eighth grade and moved on to the ninth, in the last grade he became interested in chemistry. Robert entered Harvard College a year later, when he was 18 years old, because he suffered a bout of ulcerative colitis while searching for minerals in Jáchymov during a family vacation in Europe. For medical treatment, he traveled to New Mexico, where he was fascinated by horse riding and the nature of the Southwestern United States.

In addition to majors, students were required to study history, literature, and philosophy or mathematics. Oppenheimer made up for his "late start" by taking six courses a semester and was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa student honor society. In his first year, Oppenheimer was allowed to pursue a master's program in physics based on independent study; this meant that he was exempted from the initial subjects and could be taken immediately to courses of increased complexity. After listening to the thermodynamics course that Percy Bridgman taught, Robert became seriously interested in experimental physics. He graduated with honors (Latin summa cum laude) just three years later.

In 1924, Oppenheimer learned that he was admitted to Christ College, Cambridge. He wrote a letter to Ernest Rutherford asking for permission to work at the Cavendish Laboratory. Bridgman made a recommendation to his student, noting his learning ability and analytical mind, but concluded by noting that Oppenheimer was not inclined towards experimental physics. Rutherford was not impressed, but Oppenheimer went to Cambridge hoping to get another offer. As a result, J.J. Thomson accepted him on the condition that the young man completed the basic laboratory course.

In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge to study at the University of Göttingen under the direction of Max Born.

Robert Oppenheimer defended his Ph.D. thesis in March 1927, at the age of 23, under the scientific supervision of Born. At the conclusion of the oral examination held on May 11, James Frank, the presiding professor, reportedly said, “I'm glad it's over. He almost started asking me questions himself. "

In September 1927, Oppenheimer applied for and received a fellowship from the National Research Council to work at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). However, Bridgeman also wanted Oppenheimer to work at Harvard, and as a compromise, Oppenheimer divided his 1927-28 academic year so that he worked at Harvard in 1927 and at Caltech in 1928.

In the fall of 1928, Oppenheimer visited the Paul Ehrenfest Institute at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he shocked the audience by lecturing in Dutch, although he had little experience of communicating in that language. There he was given the nickname "Opie" (Dutch. Opje), which later his students altered in the English manner in "Oppie" (English Oppie). After Leiden, he went to the Swiss Higher Technical School in Zurich to work with Wolfgang Pauli on the problems of quantum mechanics and, in particular, the description of the continuous spectrum. Oppenheimer deeply respected and loved Pauli, who may have had a strong influence on the scientist's own style and critical approach to problems.

Upon his return to the United States, Oppenheimer accepted an invitation to become an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was invited by Raymond Thayer Birge, who so wanted Oppenheimer to work for him that he allowed him to work in parallel at Caltech. But before Oppenheimer took office, he was diagnosed with a mild form of tuberculosis; because of this, he and his brother Frank spent several weeks at a ranch in New Mexico, which he rented and subsequently bought. When he found out that this place was available for rent, he exclaimed: Hot dog! (English "Wow!", literally "Hot dog") - and later the name of the ranch became Perro Caliente, which is a literal translation of hot dog into Spanish. Later, Oppenheimer liked to say that "physics and the land of the desert" were his "two great passions." He recovered from tuberculosis and returned to Berkeley, where he excelled as a scientific advisor for a generation of young physicists who admired him for his intellectual sophistication and broad interests.

Oppenheimer worked closely with Nobel Prize-winning experimental physicist Ernest Lawrence and his fellow cyclotron designers to help them interpret data from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.

In 1936, the University of Berkeley provided the scientist with a professor position with a salary of $ 3,300 per year. In return, he was asked to stop teaching at California Tech. In the end, the parties agreed that Oppenheimer was released from work for 6 weeks each year - this was enough to hold classes for one trimester at Caltech.

Oppenheimer's scientific research relates to theoretical astrophysics, closely related to general relativity and the theory of the atomic nucleus, nuclear physics, theoretical spectroscopy, quantum field theory, including quantum electrodynamics. He was attracted by the formal rigor of relativistic quantum mechanics, although he doubted its correctness. In his work, some of the later discoveries were predicted, including the discovery of the neutron, meson, and neutron stars.

In 1931, together with Paul Ehrenfest, he proved a theorem according to which nuclei consisting of an odd number of fermion particles must obey the Fermi - Dirac statistics, and from an even number - the Bose - Einstein statistics. This statement is known as ehrenfest - Oppenheimer theorem, made it possible to show the insufficiency of the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of the atomic nucleus.

Oppenheimer made a significant contribution to the theory of showers of cosmic radiation and other high-energy phenomena, using to describe them the then-existing formalism of quantum electrodynamics, which was developed in the pioneering works of Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli. He showed that, within the framework of this theory, quadratic divergences of the integrals corresponding to the self-energy of the electron are observed already in the second order of the perturbation theory.

In 1930, Oppenheimer wrote a paper that essentially predicted the existence of a positron.

After the discovery of the positron, Oppenheimer, together with his students Milton Plesset and Leo Nedelsky, performed calculations of the cross sections for the production of new particles in the scattering of energetic gamma quanta in the field of an atomic nucleus. Later, he applied his results concerning the production of electron-positron pairs to the theory of cosmic ray showers, to which he paid much attention in subsequent years (in 1937, together with Franklin Carlson, he developed the cascade theory of showers).

In 1934, Oppenheimer, together with Wendell Furry, generalized Dirac's theory of the electronby including positrons in it and having obtained as one of the consequences the effect of vacuum polarization (similar ideas were simultaneously expressed by other scientists). However, this theory was also not free from divergences, which gave rise to Oppenheimer's skeptical attitude towards the future of quantum electrodynamics. In 1937, after the discovery of mesons, Oppenheimer suggested that the new particle was identical to the one proposed by Hideki Yukawa a few years earlier, and together with his students he calculated some of its properties.

With his first graduate student, Melba Phillips, Oppenheimer worked on calculating the artificial radioactivity of elements bombarded with deuterons. Earlier, when irradiating atomic nuclei with deuterons, Ernest Lawrence and Edwin Macmillan found that the results are well described by the calculations of Georgy Gamow, but when more massive nuclei and particles with higher energies were involved in the experiment, the result began to diverge from theory.

Oppenheimer and Phillips developed a new theory to explain these results in 1935. She became known as oppenheimer-Phillips process and is still used today. The essence of this process is that when a deuteron collides with a heavy nucleus, it decays into a proton and a neutron, and one of these particles is captured by the nucleus, while the other leaves it. Other results of Oppenheimer in the field of nuclear physics include calculations of the density of energy levels of nuclei, nuclear photoelectric effect, properties of nuclear resonances, explanation of the production of electron pairs under irradiation of fluorine with protons, the development of the meson theory of nuclear forces, and some others.

In the late 1930s, Oppenheimer, probably influenced by his friend Richard Tolman, became interested in astrophysics, which resulted in a series of articles.

Many believe that, despite his talents, Oppenheimer's level of discoveries and research does not allow him to be ranked among those theorists who expanded the boundaries of fundamental knowledge. The variety of his interests at times did not allow him to fully concentrate on a particular task. One of Oppenheimer's habits that surprised his colleagues and friends was his tendency to read original foreign literature, especially poetry.

In 1933 he learned Sanskrit and met the Indologist Arthur Ryder in Berkeley. Oppenheimer read the Bhagavad Gita in the original. He later spoke of her as one of the books that influenced him greatly and shaped his philosophy of life.

Experts such as Nobel laureate in physics Luis Alvarez have speculated that if Oppenheimer had lived long enough to see his predictions confirmed by experiments, he could have won the Nobel Prize for his work on gravitational collapse related to the theory of neutron stars and black holes. In retrospect, some physicists and historians regard it as his most significant achievement, although not taken up by his contemporaries. When physicist and historian of science Abraham Pais once asked Oppenheimer what he considered his most important contribution to science, he named a work on electrons and positrons, but did not say a word about work on gravitational compression. Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times - in 1945, 1951 and 1967 - but was never awarded one.

On October 9, 1941, shortly before the United States entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt approved an accelerated atomic bomb program. In May 1942, the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, James B. Conant, one of Oppenheimer's Harvard teachers, invited him to lead a group in Berkeley that would take up calculations in the problem of fast neutrons. Robert, worried about the difficult situation in Europe, enthusiastically took on the job.

The title of his position - "Coordinator of Rapid Rupture" - definitely hinted at the use of a fast chain reaction in an atomic bomb. One of Oppenheimer's early actions in his new position was to organize a summer school on bomb theory at his Berkeley campus. His group, which included both European physicists and his own students, including Robert Serber, Emil Konopinsky, Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, and Edward Teller, studied what and in what order must be done to get a bomb.

In June 1942, the US Army founded the Manhattan Engineer District, better known as Manhattan Project, thus initiating the transfer of responsibility from the Office of Scientific Research and Development to the military. In September, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. was named project leader. Groves, in turn, appointed Oppenheimer as head of the secret weapons laboratory.

Oppenheimer and Groves decided that for safety and cohesion reasons, they needed a centralized, secret research laboratory in a remote area. The search for a convenient location in late 1942 took Oppenheimer to New Mexico, to an area near his ranch.

On November 16, 1942, Oppenheimer, Groves, and the others inspected the alleged site. Oppenheimer feared that the high cliffs surrounding the site would make his people feel like they were in a confined space, while the engineers saw the possibility of flooding. Then Oppenheimer suggested a place he knew well - a flat mesa near Santa Fe, where a private school for boys, Los Alamos Farming School, was located. The engineers were concerned about the lack of a good access road and water supply, but otherwise found the site ideal. Los Alamos National Laboratory was hastily built on the site of the school. The builders occupied several buildings of the latter for it and erected many others in the shortest possible time. There Oppenheimer assembled a group of outstanding physicists of the time, which he called "Luminaries".

Oppenheimer directed this research, theoretical and experimental, in the true sense of the word. Here his uncanny speed at grasping the main points on any subject was the deciding factor; he could familiarize himself with all the important details of each part of the work.

In 1943, development efforts were focused on a gun-type plutonium nuclear bomb called the Thin Man. The first studies of the properties of plutonium were carried out using the plutonium-239 obtained at the cyclotron, which was extremely pure, but could only be produced in small quantities.

When Los Alamos received the first plutonium sample from the X-10 graphite reactor in April 1944, a new problem emerged: the reactor plutonium had a higher concentration of the isotope 240Pu, making it unsuitable for cannon bombs.

In July 1944, Oppenheimer abandoned the development of cannon bombs, focusing on the creation of implosion-type weapons. Using a chemical explosive lens, a subcritical sphere of fissile material could be compressed to a smaller size and thus to a higher density. In this case, the substance would have to travel a very small distance, so the critical mass would be reached in a much shorter time.

In August 1944, Oppenheimer completely reorganized the Los Alamos Laboratory, focusing his efforts on research into implosion (explosion directed inward). A separate group was tasked with developing a bomb of a simple design that was supposed to work only on uranium-235; the project of this bomb was ready in February 1945 - it was given the name "Little Boy". After a titanic effort, the design of a more complex implosive charge, dubbed the Christy gadget after Robert Christie, was completed on February 28, 1945, at a meeting in Oppenheimer's office.

The result of the well-coordinated work of scientists at Los Alamos was the first artificial nuclear explosion near Alamogordo on July 16, 1945, in a place that Oppenheimer named in mid-1944 Trinity... He later said that the title was taken from John Donne's Sacred Sonnets. According to historian Gregg Herken, the title may be a reference to Jean Tatlock (who had committed suicide a few months earlier), who introduced Donne to Oppenheimer in the 1930s.

For his work as the head of Los Alamos in 1946, Oppenheimer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit.

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Manhattan Project became public, and Oppenheimer became the national representative of science, symbolic of a new type of technocratic power [. His face has appeared on the covers of Life and Time magazines. Nuclear physics became a powerful force as governments around the world began to understand the strategic and political power that comes with nuclear weapons and their dire consequences. Like many scholars of his time, Oppenheimer understood that nuclear security could only be ensured by an international organization, such as the newly formed United Nations Organization, which could introduce a program to curb the arms race.

In November 1945, Oppenheimer left Los Alamos to return to Caltech, but soon found that teaching did not appeal to him as much as before.

In 1947, he accepted Lewis Strauss's offer to head the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey.

As a member of the Council of Advisors to a commission approved by President Harry Truman, Oppenheimer was strongly influential in the Acheson-Lilienthal report. In this report, the committee recommended the creation of an international "Agency for the Development of the Nuclear Industry", which would own all nuclear materials and their means of production, including mines and laboratories, as well as nuclear power plants, where nuclear materials would be used for the production of energy for peaceful purposes. ... Bernard Baruch was appointed responsible for translating this report into a proposal for the UN Council and completed it in 1946. Baruch's plan introduced a number of additional provisions related to law enforcement, in particular the need to inspect the uranium resources of the Soviet Union. Baruch's plan was seen as an attempt by the United States to gain a monopoly on nuclear technology and was rejected by the Soviets. After that, it became clear to Oppenheimer that the arms race could not be avoided due to mutual suspicions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Following the establishment in 1947 of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as a civilian agency for nuclear research and nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer was named chairman of its General Advisory Committee (GAC).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (then under the direction of John Edgar Hoover) followed Oppenheimer even before the war, when he, as a professor at Berkeley, showed sympathy for the Communists, and was also closely acquainted with members of the Communist Party, including his wife and brother. He had been under close scrutiny since the early 1940s, with bugs deployed in his home, telephone conversations were recorded, and mail was checked. Evidence of his communist connections was readily used by Oppenheimer's political enemies, among them Lewis Strauss, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission who had long felt resentment towards Oppenheimer, as over Robert's opposition to the hydrogen bomb, which Strauss advocated. and for humiliating Lewis before Congress a few years earlier; in connection with Ostrich's resistance to the export of radioactive isotopes, Oppenheimer unforgettably classified them as "less important than electronic devices, but more important than, say, vitamins."

On June 7, 1949, Oppenheimer testified before the Commission of Inquiry on Anti-American Activities, where he admitted to having connections with the Communist Party in the 1930s. He testified that some of his students, including David Bohm, Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz, Philip Morrison, Bernard Peters, and Joseph Weinberg, were communists during the time they worked with him in Berkeley. Frank Oppenheimer and his wife Jackie also declared before the Commission that they were members of the Communist Party. Frank was subsequently fired from his position at the University of Michigan. A physicist by training, he did not find work in his specialty for many years and became a farmer on a cattle ranch in Colorado. He later began teaching physics in high school and founded the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

In 1950, Paul Crouch, a Communist Party recruiter in Alameda County from April 1941 to early 1942, became the first person to accuse Oppenheimer of being associated with the party. He testified in front of a congressional committee that Oppenheimer had hosted a meeting of Party members at his home in Berkeley. At that moment, the case received wide publicity. However, Oppenheimer was able to prove that he was in New Mexico when the meeting took place, and Crouch was eventually found to be an unreliable informant. In November 1953, J. Edgar Hoover received a letter regarding Oppenheimer written by William Liscum Borden, former executive director of the Congress "Joint Atomic Energy Committee. In the letter Borden expressed his opinion," based on several years of research, according to the available classified information, that J. Robert Oppenheimer - with a certain degree of probability - is an agent of the Soviet Union. "

Oppenheimer's former colleague, physicist Edward Teller, testified against Oppenheimer at a hearing on his admission to secret work in 1954.

Ostrich, along with Senator Brian McMahon, author of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, forced Eisenhower to reopen the Oppenheimer trial. On December 21, 1953, Lewis Strauss informed Oppenheimer that the admission hearing had been suspended pending a decision on a number of charges listed in a letter from Kenneth D. Nichols, general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, and invited the scientist to resign. Oppenheimer did not do this and insisted on a hearing.

At the hearing, held in April-May 1954, which was initially closed and did not receive publicity, special attention was paid to Oppenheimer's previous ties with the Communists and his cooperation during the Manhattan Project with unreliable or Communist Party scientists. One of the key points in this hearing was Oppenheimer's early testimony about George Eltenton's conversations with several scientists at Los Alamos - a story that Oppenheimer himself admitted to have invented to protect his friend Haakon Chevalier. Unbeknownst to Oppenheimer, both versions were recorded during his interrogation ten years ago, and it came as a surprise to him when a witness provided these recordings, which Oppenheimer was not allowed to review. In fact, Oppenheimer never told Chevalier that he had called his name, and that testimony cost Chevalier his job. Both Chevalier and Eltenton confirmed that they talked about the possibility of transmitting information to the Soviets: Eltenton admitted that he told Chevalier about it, and Chevalier admitted that he mentioned it to Oppenheimer; but both saw nothing seditious in idle talk, completely rejecting the possibility that the transmission of such information as intelligence data could be carried out or even planned for the future. None of them have been charged with any crime.

Edward Teller testified in the Oppenheimer case on April 28, 1954. Teller said he did not question Oppenheimer's loyalty to the United States, but "knows him as an extremely active and complicated mindset." When asked if Oppenheimer posed a threat to national security, Teller gave the following answer: “In a large number of cases, it was extremely difficult for me to understand Dr. Oppenheimer's actions. I completely disagreed with him on many issues, and his actions seemed to me confused and complicated. I would like to see the vital interests of our country in the hands of a person whom I understand better and therefore trust more. In this very limited sense, I would like to express the feeling that I personally would feel more protected if the public interests were in other hands. " ...

This stance angered the American scientific community, and Teller was effectively boycotted for life.

Groves also testified against Oppenheimer, but his testimony is rife with speculation and controversy.

During the trial, Oppenheimer willingly testified about the "leftist" behavior of many of his fellow scientists. According to Richard Polenberg, if Oppenheimer's admission had not been revoked, he could have gone down in history as one of those who "called names" to save his reputation. But since this happened, he was perceived by most of the academic community as a "martyr" of "McCarthyism", an eclectic liberal who was unfairly attacked by enemies-militarists, a symbol of the transfer of scientific creativity from the universities to the military. Werner von Braun expressed his opinion on the trial of the scientist in a sarcastic remark to a committee at Congress: "In England, Oppenheimer would be knighted."

P. A. Sudoplatov in his book notes that Oppenheimer, like other scientists, was not recruited, but was "a source associated with trusted agents, confidants and operatives." At a seminar at the Institute. Woodrow Wilson Institute On May 20, 2009, John Earl Hines, Harvey Claire and Alexander Vasiliev, based on a comprehensive analysis of the latter's notes based on materials from the KGB archives, confirmed that Oppenheimer never engaged in espionage for the Soviet Union. Soviet intelligence agencies periodically tried to recruit him, but they did not succeed - Oppenheimer did not betray the United States. Moreover, he fired several people sympathetic to the Soviet Union from the Manhattan Project.

Beginning in 1954, Oppenheimer spent several months a year on Saint John Island, one of the Virgin Islands. In 1957, he bought a 2-acre (0.81 ha) piece of land in Gibney Beach, where he built a Spartan home on the beach. Oppenheimer spent a lot of time sailing with his daughter Tony and wife Kitty.

Increasingly concerned about the potential dangers of scientific discoveries to humankind, Oppenheimer joined Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Joseph Rotblat and other prominent scientists and educators to found the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960. After his public humiliation, Oppenheimer did not sign major open protests against nuclear weapons in the 1950s, including the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto. He did not attend the first Pugwash Conference for Peace and Scientific Cooperation in 1957, although he was invited.

Oppenheimer has been a heavy smoker since his youth. At the end of 1965, he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer and, after an unsuccessful operation, at the end of 1966 he underwent radio and chemotherapy. The treatment had no effect. On February 15, 1967, Oppenheimer fell into a coma and died on February 18 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 62.

The memorial service was held at Princeton University's Alexander Hall a week later, attended by 600 of his closest colleagues and friends: academics, politicians and the military - including Bethe, Groves, Kennan, Lilienthal, Rabi, Smith and Wigner. Also in attendance were Frank and the rest of his relatives, historian Arthur Meyer Schlesinger Jr., writer John O'Hara, and New York Ballet director George Balanchine. Bethe, Kennan, and Smith gave short speeches in which they paid tribute to the deceased's achievements.

Oppenheimer was cremated, his ashes placed in an urn. Kitty took her to St. John's Island and threw her from the boat into the sea within sight of their cabin.

After the death of Kitty Oppenheimer, who died in October 1972 from an intestinal infection complicated by a pulmonary embolism, their son Peter inherited Oppenheimer's ranch in New Mexico, and the property on St. John's Island passed to their daughter Tony. Tony was denied access to secret work, which was required for her chosen profession of interpreter at the UN, after the FBI raised old charges against her father.

In January 1977, three months after the dissolution of her second marriage, she committed suicide by hanging herself in a house on the coast; she bequeathed her property to "the people of St. John's Island as a public park and recreation area." The house, originally built too close to the sea, was destroyed by a hurricane; the government of the Virgin Islands currently maintains a Community Center at the site.

“I need physics more than friends,” a famous American scientist once said. - Robert Oppenheimer was called so by his compatriots - he devoted his whole life to research. He suffered from depression, was a very eccentric person, his interests were not limited to physics. Julius Robert Oppenheimer's story is told in this article.

Childhood

Robert Oppenheimer was born in 1904 in New York. His father was from Germany and was involved in the sale of fabrics. In addition, Oppenheimer Sr. acquired paintings throughout his life, collected an excellent collection, which even included canvases by Van Gogh. The mother of the future scientist taught painting. She died young, her death devastated the inner world of her son. One of the compilers of the biography of Robert Oppenheimer suggested that a certain sophistication of the scientist and his interest in art was caused by nothing more than the desire to preserve the image of his mother.

At the age of five, the hero of today's story began collecting mineral samples. As a gift from his grandfather, he received a wonderful collection of stones. When the boy was eleven, he was admitted to the mineralogical club. After graduation, he entered Harvard University.

Youth

Robert Oppenheimer did not dream of becoming a physicist from an early age. Initially, he planned to study chemistry, in addition, he was attracted by poetry and architecture. This scientist was a versatile person. His interests covered the exact and human sciences. He studied physics, chemistry, Greek and Latin, and wrote poetry in his youth.

It should be said that in the United States, in the first half of the 20th century, school and university education also acquired a pronounced tendency towards specialization. This divided people, limited the range of their knowledge. Oppenheimer's desire for knowledge in various fields testifies to his gifted, rich nature.

Passion for Eastern philosophy

He amazed those around him with his intellectual sensitivity and high working capacity. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, during one of his trips, in just a few hours, he read a monograph by an English historian on the collapse of the Roman Empire. Once I amazed my colleagues by suddenly starting to lecture in Dutch. But nothing could satisfy Oppenheimer's thirst for knowledge. Later he began to study Buddhism, Indian philosophy. Moreover, I became interested in Sanskrit.

"I am the destroyer of worlds" - Robert Oppenheimer once said this odious phrase. She became one of his most famous sayings. Robert Oppenheimer extracted the quote from the work of an ancient Indian philosopher. Why he called himself the destroyer of worlds is described below.

In Europe

Robert Oppenheimer graduated in 1925. Moreover, he completed the standard course not in four, but in three years. Then he went to Europe, where he continued his education. The fame of the universities of the Old World had not yet faded against the background of the rich American laboratories. Many US students have sought to study in Europe.

Oppenheimer was admitted to the University of Cambridge. Here he began work in the Cavendish laboratory. Its leader was the scientist Rutserdorf, whom the students called for some reason "crocodile". By the way, one of the students of the teacher with a strange nickname was Pyotr Kapitsa. Oppenheimer differed from his comrades in his incredible ability to carry out theoretical and experimental research.

In the Cavendish laboratory, the young American witnessed the incredible struggle waged by scientists in order to get the expensive, sophisticated instruments needed for research from the patrons and the government.

Soon, Oppenheimer received an invitation to the University of George Augusta. This institution was famous primarily for outstanding mathematicians, among whom was the famous Friedrich Gauss. The George Augusta University was considered a scientific center where a revolution in physics took place.

In 1927, Oppenheimer passed his exams. In all subjects, except for organic chemistry, he received "excellent". He defended his thesis brilliantly. Max Born characterized the work of the aspiring scientist very highly, while noted that it significantly exceeds the standard dissertations in terms of its level.

Quantum revolution

Of course, Robert Oppenheimer did not play a significant role in modern physics, unlike Schrödinger, Curie, Einstein. Moreover, he did not make significant scientific discoveries. However, not a single scientist, like Oppenheimer, was able to grasp the role of the quantum revolution and its possibilities to the extent that the hero of the article did. He carried out numerous experimental and theoretical studies, found out new properties of matter, and published many reports on this topic. Oppenheimer made a significant contribution to the latest physics, which was under construction in the first half of the 20th century. He was a talented teacher, popularizer of new theories.

Even a short biography of Robert Oppenheimer indicates an important fact about him: he was one of the leading American developers of nuclear weapons. That is why he was called "the father of the atomic bomb." It was first tested in 1945 in New Mexico. Then it occurred to the scientist to compare himself with the destroyer of worlds.

Linus Pauling

In 1928, Oppenheimer became close friends with the famous American chemist. Together they planned to organize research in the field of chemical bonding. Pauling was a pioneer in this area. Oppenheimer had to deal with the mathematical part. However, the scientists' ideas were not realized. The chemist began to suspect that the relationship between a colleague and his wife was becoming too close. He refused further cooperation, and when Oppenheimer later offered him to head the Chemical Division, he refused, citing his pacifist views.

Personal life

In 1936, Robert Oppenheimer began an affair with Jean Tatlock. The girl was studying at Stanford Medical School at the time. It is noteworthy that their relationship arose on the basis of common political views. The scientist broke up with Tetlock three years after they met. At the same time, he began a relationship with a student at the University of Berkeley and a former member of the Communist Party, Catherine Harrison. At that time, the girl was married. When she found out that she was pregnant with Oppenheimer, she filed for a divorce. Their wedding took place in November 1940. While married, Oppenheimer renewed his relationship with his former lover Jean Tatlock.

There is a version that the scientist's wife, Catherine Harrison, was a special agent of Soviet intelligence. Moreover, she was in America precisely with the aim of entering into a relationship with Robert Oppenheimer. This point of view was expressed in his memoirs by the saboteur Pavel Sudoplatov. Jean Tatlock, who also had connections with members of the Communist Party, also raised doubts. It is worth saying that in the circles of American scientists in those years, almost every third intelligence officer from the USSR was.

Political activity

In the twenties, Oppenheimer was not at all interested in politics. According to him, he did not read newspapers, did not listen to the radio. For example, he learned about the collapse in stock prices in 1929 a few months later. In the presidential election, he first voted in 1936. In the mid-thirties, he suddenly became interested in international relations. In 1934, he expressed a desire to donate a small part of his salary in support of German scientists forced to leave their homeland due to the totalitarian regime. Sometimes Oppenheimer even appeared at rallies.

Security clearance

American internal intelligence has been tracking Robert Oppenheimer since the late thirties. The scientist aroused distrust because of his sympathy for the communists. In addition, his close relatives were members of this party. In the early forties, the scientist was under close supervision. His telephone conversations were tapped. Pens were installed in Oppenheimer's house.

In 1949, the scientist testified to government officials who were investigating anti-American activities. Oppenheimer admitted that in the early thirties he had a connection with the communists. His brother Frank, who was a physicist by education, but after a high-profile incident lost his job, went to Colorado, where he became a farmer, was also interrogated. Robert Oppenheimer was removed from secret activities. According to materials from the KGB archives, he was not recruited, never engaged in espionage for the Soviet Union.

Last years

Most of the time since 1954, Robert Oppenheimer spent on St. John's Island. Here he acquired a land plot and built a house. The scientist loved to sail on a yacht with his daughter and wife Catherine. In recent years, he has become increasingly concerned about the dangers of scientific discoveries in nuclear physics. He was completely devoid of political influence, but continued to lecture and write a monograph.

In 1965, a famous theoretical physicist was diagnosed with throat cancer. He underwent chemotherapy, but the treatment did not work. Robert Oppenheimer passed away in February 1967.

Robert Oppenheimer was born in the United States to a family of German immigrants with Jewish roots. The family of Julius Oppenheimer and Ella Friedman had two children - the elder Robert and the younger Frank, who later became the greatest physicists of their time.

Alcuin Preparatory School was the first place of study for Robert, followed by the Ethical Culture Society School. Oppenheimer demonstrated an interest in a wide variety of sciences, completing the 3rd and 4th grade programs in one year. In the same way, he passed the exams in the eighth grade, having mastered the entire program in just six months. Moving to the last grade, Oppenheimer gets acquainted with chemistry - science becomes his passion.

At the age of 18, young Robert went to Harvard College, where he had to learn not only major subjects, but also choose an additional one: history, literature and philosophy or mathematics.

But this did not bother him. Oppenheimer has shown success in everything: he took a record six courses per semester, became a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and in his first year was eligible to attend a master's program in physics based on independent study (skipping elementary studies). Passion for experimental physics came to Robert after taking a course in thermodynamics, which was read by Percy Bridgman. Oppenheimer graduated with honors in just three years.

But Robert did not finish his studies on this - educational institutions in different European cities were waiting for him. So in 1924 he was admitted to Christ College, Cambridge. He just dreamed of working in the Cavendish Laboratory - a laboratory where it was possible not only to observe research, but also to conduct it together with teachers. Going to Cambridge with a not too rosy recommendation from Bridgman (which noted Oppenheimer's lack of inclination for experimental physics), he was accepted into the course of training with Joseph Thomson.

In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge and went to the University of Göttingen, which at that time was one of the most advanced in the study of physics in all its forms. In 1927, at the age of 23, Robert Oppenheimer defended his dissertation and received his Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen.

Teaching and scientific activities

Upon returning to his homeland, Oppenheimer received a work permit at one of the most prestigious universities in California, while Bridgman wanted the promising physicist to work at Harvard. As a compromise, it was decided that Oppenheimer would teach part of the school year at Harvard (1927) and the second part at the University of California (1928). In the latter institution, Robert met Linus Pauling, with whom they planned to "turn over" ideas about the nature of the chemical bond, but Oppenheimer's excessive interest in Pauling's wife prevented this - Linus completely severed contacts with Oppenheimer, later refusing even to participate in his famous Manhattan project.

As part of his teaching career, Robert also visited a number of educational institutions. In 1928, he went to Leiden University (Netherlands), where he surprised the students by giving a lecture in their native language. Then there was the Swiss Higher Technical School (Zurich), where he managed to work with his adored Wolfgang Pauli. Scientists spent days on end discussing the problems of quantum mechanics and ways to solve them.

Returning to the United States, Robert took up the position of Senior Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. However, very soon he had to leave the walls of the university for a while - Oppenheimer was diagnosed with a mild stage of tuberculosis. Having recovered, he began to work with renewed vigor.

Theoretical astrophysics is the main focus of Oppenheimer's scientific research. The list of his works is in the hundreds and includes articles and research in quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical spectroscopy and other sciences, one way or another intersecting with his high profile specialization.

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was something completely new for Oppenheimer. By creating the nuclear bomb at the behest of President Franklin Roosevelt, surrounded by the best physicists of the time, he greatly expanded the range of skills available. Oppenheimer initially led the group at the University of Berkeley. Their task was to calculate fast neutrons. The “Rapid Break Coordinator,” as Oppenheimer's position was called, worked hand in hand not only with eminent physicists, but also with talented students, including Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller and others.

Leslie Groves, Jr. was nominated as the project leader from the US Army (after transferring responsibility for the project from scientific to military). Without hesitation, he appointed Oppenheimer to head the laboratory of secret weapons. The decision came as a surprise to both scientists and the military. The choice for the role of a manager who did not have a Nobel Prize and, accordingly, no authority, Howars explained by the personal qualities of the candidate. Including vanity, which, in his opinion, should have "spurred" Oppenheimer to achieve a result.

The bomb development base, moved at the initiative of Oppenheimer from New Mexico to Los Almoss, was set up in no time - some buildings were leased, some were just being built. The number of physicists involved in the project grew every year - Oppenheimer's initial calculations were rather short-sighted. If in 1943 a couple of hundred people worked on the project, then already in 1945 this figure increased to several thousand.

At first, physics management and coordination of groups was quite difficult, but very soon Oppenheimer mastered this science as well. Later, the project participants noted his ability to smooth out the contradictions between the military and civilians, which arose for a variety of reasons - from cultural to religious. At the same time, he always took into account all aspects and subtleties of such a specific project.

In 1945, the first test of the created product took place - near Alamogordo, an artificial explosion took place on July 16, and it was successful.

The fate of the two "Manhattan" bombs, developed under the leadership of Oppenheimer, were determined long before their creation - shells with the sarcastic names "Kid" and "Fat Man" were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1956, respectively.

Personal life

Oppenheimer's personal and political life has always been closely intertwined. He was repeatedly suspected of involvement with the communists, and the social reforms he supported were regarded as pro-communist. But he only added fuel to the fire. So, in 1936, Oppenheimer began an affair with a medical student, whose father was also a professor of literature at Berkeley. Jean Tatlock and Oppenheimer had similar views on life and politics, moreover, she even wrote notes for the newspaper, which was published by the Communist Party. However, the couple broke up in 1929.

In the summer of that year, Oppenheimer meets Katherine Pyuning Harrison, a former Communist Party member who has three marriages behind her, one of which is still valid. After spending the summer of 1940 at Oppenheimer's ranch, becoming pregnant and having difficulty getting a divorce from her current husband, Kitty married Robert. In the marriage, the Oppenheimer couple have two children - Peter Boy and Catherine, but this does not stop Robert and he continues the relationship with Tetlock.

Katherine was close to Oppenheimer to the last - she went with him to the end of the path of fighting cancer, which was diagnosed by the scientist in 1965. Operations, radio- and chemotherapy did not bring results - on February 18, after a three-day coma, Robert Oppenheimer died.

Bibliography by Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer, who laid his life on the altar of science, wrote about a dozen books on physics, published many scientific articles and publications. Unfortunately, most of the works have not been translated into Russian. Among the books of his authorship are:

• Science and the Common Understanding (1954)
• The Open Mind (1955)
• Atom and Void: Essays on Science and Community (1989) and many others.

• Oppenheimer - the genius of his time - had serious mental problems (once he dipped an apple in a poisonous liquid and put it on the table to his boss) was an avid smoker (from which he earned tuberculosis and laryngeal cancer) and sometimes even forgot to eat - physics carried him headlong ...
• “I am death, destroyer of worlds,” is Oppenheimer's phrase about himself. It occurred to him during the test explosion of his bomb and was borrowed from the Hindu book of the Bhagavad Gita.

Robert Oppenheimer is widely known as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, within which the first samples of nuclear weapons were developed during the Second World War, which is why he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb."

Today we decided to illustrate for you the biography of the famous scientist.

"If the radiance of a thousand suns flashed in the sky, it would be like the brilliance of the Almighty ... I became Death, the destroyer of Worlds."

Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born to Julius Oppenheimer, a wealthy fabric importer and artist Ella Friedman. His parents were Jews who immigrated from Germany to America in 1888.

Scientist Robert Oppenheimer as a child

The boy receives his primary education at the Preparatory School. Alcuin, and in 1911 he entered the School of the Society for Ethical Culture. Here he received secondary education in a short time, showing particular interest in mineralogy.

Robert Oppenheimer, 1931

In 1922, Robert entered Harvard College for a chemistry course, but later also studied literature, history, mathematics, and theoretical and experimental physics. He graduated from the university in 1925.

Photo of young Oppenheimer

After entering Christ College at Cambridge University, he works at the Cavendish Laboratory, where he soon received an offer to work for the famous British physicist J.J. Thomson - on condition that Oppenheimer completed the basic training course of the laboratory.

Robert Oppenheimer (with a tube)

Since 1926, Robert studies at the University of Göttingen, where Max Born becomes his scientific advisor. At that time, this university was one of the leading institutions of higher education in the field of theoretical physics, and it is here that Oppenheimer meets a number of outstanding people, whose names will soon become known to the whole world: Enrico Fermi and Wolfgang Pauli.

Oppenheimer , Enrico Fermi and Ernest Lawrence

His thesis titled "The Born-Oppenheimer Approximation" makes a significant contribution to the study of the nature of molecules. Finally, in 1927, he graduated from the university with a Ph.D.

Young Oppenheimer's hairstyle

In 1927, Oppenheimer was awarded membership in research groups at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology by the US National Research Council. In 1928 he lectured at Leiden University, after which he went to Zurich, where, together with his fellow institute, Wolfgang Pauli, he worked on questions of quantum mechanics and the continuous spectrum.

Robert Oppenheimer ... "Father" of the American atomic bomb

In 1929, Oppenheimer accepted an offer to become an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he would work for the next twenty years.

He called himself the destroyer of worlds Robert Oppenheimer

Since 1934, continuing his works in the field of physics, he also takes an active part in the political life of the country. Oppenheimer donates part of his salary to help German physicists escaping Nazi Germany, and shows support for social reforms that would later be called "communist efforts."

Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer

In 1936, Oppenheimer received the position of tenured professor at the National Laboratory. Lawrence at Berkeley. However, at the same time, the continuation of his full-fledged teaching at the California Institute of Technology becomes impossible. Ultimately, the parties agree that Oppenheimer will vacate his position at the University in six academic weeks, which corresponds to one semester.

From left to right: Robert Oppenheimer , Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence

In 1942, Oppenheimer took part in the Manhattan Project with a research group that developed atomic bombs during World War II.

General Leslie Groves (military head of the Manhattan Project) and Robert Oppenheimer (research head)

In 1947, Oppenheimer was unanimously elected head of the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission. In this position, he actively solicits strict adherence to international rules for the use of weapons and support for fundamental research projects.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer

Even before the outbreak of World War II, the FBI, and J. Edgar Hoover personally, set up surveillance for Oppenheimer, suspecting him of close ties to the Communist group.

In 1949, before the Commission on the Investigation of Anti-American Activities, the scientist admits that in the 1930s he really took an active part in the Communist Party. As a result, in the next four years, he will be declared unreliable.

Professor Robert Oppenheimer

At the end of his life, Oppenheimer collaborated with Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein and Joseph Rotblat, jointly opening the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960.

Robert Oppenheimer, Elsa Einstein, Albert Einstein, Margarita Konenkova, Einstein's adopted daughter, Margot

Oppenheimer had been a heavy smoker since his youth; at the end of 1965 he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and, after an unsuccessful operation, at the end of 1966 he underwent radio and chemotherapy. The treatment had no effect; On February 15, 1967, Oppenheimer fell into a coma and died on February 18 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 62.

The lunar crater and asteroid No. 67085 are named in his honor.

Interesting Facts

Theoretical physicist François Ferguson, a friend of Oppenheimer's, recalled how, once, he left an apple doused with harmful chemicals on the table of his scientific advisor Patrick Blackett.

The famous theoretical physicist, Oppenheimer had serious mental problems, was a heavy smoker and often, during his work, forgot to eat.