Meet the most famous and heroic American ever lived. Julius Robert Oppenheimer born in New York City on April 22, 1904, was born in to a very wealthy and cultured family. Julius was no regular kid, from a very young age people acknowledged that he would once become brilliant. He had one little brother Frank. His parents, Julius, and former Ella Friedman, were very successful as well. His father emigrated into the U.S. as a young boy from Germany. Julius as well had his own business importing textiles. Ella, his Mother, was a beautiful painter. She as well loved the beauty of the arts. As a little boy, Robert (his preferable name) was clearly seen as a genius. His quietness was a sign of a quick mind, and a strong appetite for learning. Robert also had a very wide range of interests. At age 11 Rob was the youngest person to be admitted into the New York Mineralogical Society. He submitted his paper when he was only 12 years old. After graduating the Ethical Culture School in New York, he spent his summer in Europe. Although he contracted dysentery there and had to take one year to recuperate, when he was all better Robert took his first flight west where the Pecos Valley of New Mexico caught his imagination. The Oppenheimer family later bought a house their, returning year after year. In 1922 he entered Harvard University. With a broad curriculum, several foreign language classes, along with chemistry and physics, he managed to complete college in just 3 years. And in 1925 he left the U.S. to Europe to study the Theoretical Physics. In 1928 Robert obtained some teaching positions at the University of California at Berkeley and at the California Institute of Technology, other wised known as Cal Tech, found in Pasadena. In the next 13 years he taught and did research at these schools during alternating semesters and became a wonderful teacher. Even though many students complained that he set impossible expectations in the classroom, he interested many others and some colleagues as well in theoretical physics. Oppenheimer’s social life was much like his teaching; he would spend hours of time discussing subjects such as astrophysics and cosmic rays or nuclear physics and electrodynamics. Some of Rob’s best work in the study of elementary particles was as well done over the years as a teacher. In 1930, he demonstrated that the proton in not the antimatter equivalent of antielectron as had then been supposed. In 1935 he discovered that it was possible to accelerate deuterons made up of a proton and a neutron to much higher energies than neutrons alone. This research would lead to the Manhattan Project where he would later create the atomic bomb. As you can see Julius Oppenheimer was a key to our country’s history. He was one of the most remarkable humans U.S. has had since Einstein. Rob had accomplished many other things in his life, these are only a few. He died in February, on the 18th of 1967 where he loved it the most, Princeton University. His death was due to a severe throat cancer. He was happily married with Katherine Puening Harrison (maid name). They were married on November 1st, 1940 and had two beautiful children Peter and Katherine (Toni). I could never forget what Mr. Oppenheimer has done for our country; I just hope you never will either.
