Theoretical Physicist and Director of the Manhattan Project. Known as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb", he was born in New York City, New York, the son of German immigrants and textile importers. He attended Harvard University, where he excelled in languages, Eastern philosophy, physics and chemistry. In 1925, he studied energy and sub-atomic particles at Cavendish Laboratory, England. A year later, he and Max Born developed their classical molecular quantum theory at Gottingen University. Returning to the U.S., Oppenheimer taught theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, from 1929 to 1942. During the 1930s, he sided with the Communists and the Spanish Republican Forces against Germany and Fascist Spain during the Spanish Civil War but withdrew all affiliations with the Communist Party over the mistreatment of Russian scientists by Stalin. In 1939, he joined with Albert Einstein to alert the U.S. Government of the dangers of nuclear energy in the hands of Nazi Germany, and in 1942, he teamed with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Officer Leslie Groves on the Manhattan Project, which was the U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb and use it to bring an end to World War II. Oppenheimer soon led the scientific end of the project; his leadership earned him an international reputation as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb". The bomb was developed during a secret mission at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. On July 16, 1945, the new bomb was successfully detonated at the Trinity Test, also in New Mexico. While watching the first-ever atomic bomb explode during the test, Oppenheimer thought of Hindu scripture and proclaimed, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." A month later, two atomic bombs nicknamed "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the bombs caused death, destruction, and devastation never before seen in human history. This led to Japan's unconditional surrender a few weeks later when Japanese representatives signed the Instrument of Surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay as General Douglas MacArthur presided over the ceremony. Oppenheimer was shocked by the massive destruction that the atomic bombs wreaked on the two Japanese cities, and he resigned his position two months later. During the postwar period, he became a government and United Nations (U.N.) advisor on nuclear power and proposed international regulation to ensure its peaceful use. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and pursued peaceful uses of atomic power. As director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, from 1947 to 1966, he pursued research in quantum and relativistic physics. During the McCarthy Witch Hunt Era in 1953, he was defamed as pro-Communist. Oppenheimer was cleared by a security hearing, but he was prohibited from access to secret military information. In December 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented him with the Atomic Energy Commission's prestigious Enrico Fermi Award for his contributions to nuclear science. Oppenheimer retired in 1966. A lifelong chain smoker, he died of throat cancer in 1967 at age 62. His wife Kitty died five years later, also at age 62. The life of J. Robert Oppenheimer was recently immortalized in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer", the epic biographical thriller film that premiered in July 2023 and immediately grossed $578 million worldwide.