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Oppenheimer was born in New York City to a wealthy Jewish textile family. They lived in the fine side of New York on 155 Riverside Drive.
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J. Robert Oppenheimer graduates from Ethical Culture School, New York. During his senior year he became very interested in Chemistry.
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In 1925 Oppenheimer graduates from Harvard University with a major in chemistry. After three years at Harvard he did very well in chemistry, summa cum laude.
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In September of 1925 Oppenheimer sails to England to study physics at Cambridge University.
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In 1926 Oppenheimer was invited to work at the Gottingen University in Germany by Max Born. Oppenheimer met the physicists Neil Bohr and Paul Dirac.
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In 1927, at the age of 23, Oppenheimer recieves his doctorate from the Gottingen University.
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On returning to the United States, Oppenheimer accepted an associate professorship from the University of California.
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In 1936 Berkeley promoted him to full professor at a salary of $3300 per annum. In return he was asked to also teach at Caltech.
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On November 1, 1940 Oppenheimer marries Katherine Puening Harrison, a Berkley student and former Communist Party Member.
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In May of 1941 Oppenheimers first son Peter is born.
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In September, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. selected Oppenheimer to head the Manhattan Project's secret weapons laboratory.
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Their second child, Katherine was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on December 7, 1944.
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Oppenheimer wittnesses the first artificial nuclear bomb detonate in the New Mexico Desert. He is quoted in saying, "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
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For his services as director of Los Alamos, Oppenheimer was awarded the Medal for Merit from President Harry S Truman in 1946.
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Oppenheimer was appointed as the Chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic ENergy Commission.
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In the years between 1947 and 1966, Oppenheimer was the Director at Princeton's University for Advanced Studies.
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December 21, 1953 Oppenheimer gets suspended from the GAC of the AEC for having communist ties. Most of his family and friends were members of the Communist Party.
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In September 1957, France made Oppenheimer an Officer of the Legion of Honor.
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May 3, 1962, Julius was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in Britain.
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President Lyndon Johnson, presented Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award, "for contributions to theoretical physics as a teacher and originator of ideas, and for leadership of the Los Alamos Laboratory and the atomic energy program during critical years."
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After a fight with throat cancer and unsucessful chemotherapy Oppenheimer falls into a coma and dies 3 days later.
