J. Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb,' dies

On February 18, 1967, J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb,” dies at age 62 of throat cancer after a lifetime of heavy smoking.

According to his obituary in The New York Times, Oppenheimer, who had been sick since early 1966, died around 8 p.m. at his home on the grounds of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he had served as director.

Oppenheimer is best known for his role as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project during World War II. Born in New York City to a wealthy, culturally engaged family, he showed early brilliance in science and languages. (He read and spoke at least six.) He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University—after only three years—and studied later at the University of Cambridge and the University of Göttingen, where he earned his doctorate under Nobel laureate Max Born. Oppenheimer quickly established himself as a leading figure in theoretical physics, making important contributions to quantum mechanics, cosmic ray theory and the early study of black holes.

During World War II, Oppenheimer was appointed director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where he led the scientific effort to develop the first atomic bombs as part of the Manhattan Project. Under his leadership, an international team of scientists, racing to beat the Germans, achieved the first successful nuclear test, known as the Trinity test, in July 1945. The bombs developed at Los Alamos were dropped the following month on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, helping bring the war to an end but also ushering in the uncertainty of the nuclear age. Oppenheimer later reflected deeply on the moral implications of the weapon, famously recalling a line from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

“Robert Oppenheimer lived the remainder of his life in the blinding light and the crepusculine shadow of the world’s first manmade atomic explosion, an event for which he was largely responsible,” the Times wrote. “That sunlike flash illuminated him as a scientific genius, the technocrat of a new age for mankind.”

After the war, Oppenheimer became an influential voice in science policy and international control of nuclear weapons. He served as first chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, where he opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb. During the Red Scare, his past associations and political views led to a controversial 1954 security hearing that resulted in the revocation of his security clearance, damaging his public career. In 1963, President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. Oppenheimer spent his later years as director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, continuing to contribute to scientific and intellectual life until his death in 1967.

About 600 people, including five Nobel laureates, attended Oppenheimer’s funeral. His ashes were scattered at sea near the U.S. Virgin Islands.