J. Robert Oppenheimer: a Timeline of Greatness By samellingson Apr 22, 1904 J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City, New York to Julius Oppenheimer (father) and Ella Friedman (mother). 1911 As his family was part of the Ethical Culture Society, he was enrolled into the Ethical Culture School. 1921 Oppenheimer graduated high school as valedictorian and top of his class. 1921 Enrolled into Harvard with a major in Chemistry 1925 Graduated Harvard and began his graduate work under Nobel Prize Winner J.J Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory 1926 Studied under Max Born at the University of Göttingen 1927 Oppenheimer received his doctorate 1927 Worked with Max Born on the structure of molecules which ended up producing the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation 1929 Oppenheimer received offers to teach at both Caltech and the University of California at Berkeley, to which he accepted both. 1930 It was around this time period that Oppenheimer wrote papers theorizing the existence of black holes 1937 Robert's father, Julius Oppenheimer, died and Robert received a lot of wealth. 1940 Married his wife, Katherine "Kitty" Harrison 1941 Robert and Kitty had their first child, Peter 1942 Joined the Manhattan Project as the director of it Period: 1942 to 1945 Working on the Manhattan project 1944 Robert and Kitty had their second child, and first daughter, Toni Jul 16, 1945 The Trinity test turned out successful Aug 6, 1945 Hiroshima was bombed with an atomic bomb Aug 9, 1945 Nagasaki was bombed with an atomic bomb 1946 Became a Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission 1947 Directed at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey Period: 1947 to 1952 Serving as Chairman for the AEC Period: 1947 to 1966 Served as Director for the Institute for Advanced Study 1950 An Anti-Communist frenzy (Red Scare) started to spread around America 1953 Oppenheimer's Security Clearance was revoked in a hearing for his past communist affiliations 1953 Oppenheimer wrote a ton of well-known essays about science, and delivered the Reith Lectures on the BBC 1960 Established the World Academy of Art and Science along with a few other fellow scientists 1962 Invited to a Nobel Prize dinner by President Kennedy as a way to make amends for how the U.S government had treated him 1963 Awarded the Enrico Fermi Award Feb 18, 1967 Died of throat cancer in Princeton, NJ
