Alphabetical Index Index by Year of Birth
Robert Oppenheimer
* 1904 New York City
+ 1967 Princeton, New Jersey
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J. Robert Oppenheimerwas an American theoretical physicist
who was professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory
and is among those who are credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb"
for their role in the Manhattan Project – the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons.
Oppenheimer's achievements in physics included 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.
With his students he also made important contributions to the modern theory of neutron stars and black holes,
as well as to quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and the interactions of cosmic rays.
2022