J. Robert Oppenheimer

             Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York City to German-Jewish parents. When he was a child, he had a strong interest in mathematics and science. He was also interested in minerals. At age 11, he had become an elected member of the New York Mineralogical Club. He read his first scientific paper about minerals to the club when he was 12. .
             After high school, Oppenheimer went on to Harvard where he received his A.B. degree in 1925. While at Harvard, he excelled in Latin, Greek, physics, and chemistry. He even published poetry and studied Oriental Philosophy. Then he headed for England to do research at the Cavendish Laboratory, which was headed by Ernest Rutherford, at the University of Cambridge. It was renowned internationally for its study on atomic structures. He found laboratory work "a terrible bore" and didn't feel he was learning anything from it. .
             A man named Max Born persuaded Oppenheimer to travel to Germany to attend the University of Gottingen. There, he met other physicists like Enrico Fermi and Werner Heisenberg. Later, Born and Oppenheimer collaborated and published papers on collision theory. This resulted in a Ph.D. in 1927. As a fellow of the Institute of International Education, Oppenheimer went to Zurich and Leyden. .
             By 1928, He had become a heavy smoker and acquired a bothersome cough that would not go away. He was diagnosed as having tuberculosis and took time off. In 1929, he returned to the U.S. to become assistant professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California. He became a full professor in 1936.
             While he was professor, he covered numerous areas of physics. Oppenheimer made contributions to the cosmic ray theory, quantum mechanics, atomic theory, nuclear physics, fundamental particles, and astrophysics. Later, he shifted gears to study neutrons with the discovery of a neutron in 1932.