J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer Historical Figure Nationality: United States Year of Birth: 1904 Year of Death: 1967 Cause of Death: Throat cancer Religion: Judaism Occupation: Physicist, Author of Non-Fiction Spouse: Kitty Harrison Children: Peter, Katherine Professional Affiliations: Manhattan Project Fictional Appearances: Joe Steele POD: 1878; Relevant POD: July, 1932 Novel or Story?: Both Type of Appearance: Posthumous references Date of Death: 1946 Cause of Death: Execution by firing squad

Julius Robert Openheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known as "the father of the atomic bomb" for his role as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons in the New Mexico desert. His anti-proliferation stance and his ties to Communism in his youth led to his fall-from-grace in the political arena.

J. Robert Oppenheimer in Joe Steele

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1946) was one of several scientists rounded up and executed for "wrecking", after President Joe Steele learned that Albert Einstein had deliberately withheld the idea of the atomic bomb from the United States.

Many of the executed men were Jewish. While President Steele and his enforcers never openly acknowledged an anti-Semitic agenda, they did not deny it either.

Literary comment

Oppenheimer met the same fate in the short story, where the "Professors' Plot" gives the roundup a more blatantly anti-Semitic aura.

See also

• Barbie, Oppenheimer's chief rival in 2023.