Teller, Edward
Teller, Edward
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Known as the "father of the hydrogen bomb" for his work on thermonuclear fusion
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: January 15, 1908, Budapest, Hungary
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: …
DISCIPLINE: Nuclear physicist
FIELD: Physics
LANGUAGE: Hungarian, English
PARENTS: Max Teller; Ilona Deutch
SIBLINGS: Unknown
SPOUSE: Augusta Maria Harkanyi
CHILDREN: 1 son, 1 daughter
EDUCATION: University of Budapest; Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe,
Germany; University of Munich; University of Leipzig,
MAJOR WORK: Teller-Ulam configuration (hydrogen bomb trigger)
LIFE AND TIMES:
Late in 1928 , at the age of 20, Teller moved to the University of Leipzig to study under German physicist Heisenberg*. He attained his doctorate in physics in 1930, having submitted a dissertation on experiments in which he used quantum mechanics to calculate energy levels in an excited hydrogen molecule.
From 1931 to 1933, he worked as research assistant at the University of Gottingen, where he studied under German physicist Born*. In late 1933, he was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, which he used to join Bohr* at the Copenhagen Institute for Theoretical Physics.
In 1934, Teller accepted a year’s appointment as lecturer at the University of London, and in 1935 moved to the United States, where he had been appointed professor of molecular and atomic physics at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. During his six years at George Washington, he worked closely with physicist Gamow*, and they calculated the rules for one of the major forms of radioactivity, known as the Gamow-Teller selection rules for beta decay.
In 1938, two German chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, split the atom, and within months it became clear that atomic weapons were possible. Teller was one of the physicists (along with Einstein*) who lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt* to attempt to build such a weapon, and was involved in the Manhattan Project (code name for secret work on developing an atomic bomb) from its beginning in 1940.
In 1941, Teller and his wife became naturalized U.S. citizens, and the same year he joined the Columbia University research group under Fermi* to work on the atomic bomb, moving between Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
One of Teller’s tasks on the Manhattan Project was to calculate the possibility of developing a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb This became a major focus of his energies, even after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (an act which Teller opposed) and the Second World Was ended. After the War, Teller and Oppenheimer*, wartime director of the Los Alamos laboratories and one of the most influential nuclear physicists of the time, had a falling out, when Oppenheimer openly opposed the development of thermonuclear weapons.
As a consequence, Teller left Los Alamos in 1946 for a professorship at the University of Chicago, where he concentrated on problems in theoretical physics, such as the relation of gravitational and electromagnetic forces over time, and the origins of the elements and cosmic rays. But in 1949, after the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, Teller was called back to Los Alamos and was appointed director of the U.S. hydrogen-bomb development program.
By 1952, Teller, and Polish/American physicist Ulam* had made a number of crucial breakthroughs toward the creation of a thermonuclear weapon. One development was a two-stage radiation implosion design that became known as the "Teller-Ulam configuration".
Ulam had found that shock waves from a fission bomb could produce the compression essential for the H-bomb explosion, and that careful design could focus mechanical shock waves in such a way that they would promote rapid burning of the fusion fuel. Over the objections of Oppenheimer, Teller used his growing influence in government to lobby for a second nuclear laboratory.
The result was the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California in Livermore, established in July ,1952. Teller became associate director of the Laboratory in 1954 and its director in 1958. Further work at the Laboratory led to the successful November 1, 1954, test of the first hydrogen device (named "Mike").
This test demonstrated the validity of the Teller-Ulam mechanism, and was the prototype of a bomb, named "Cherokee," tested in May, 1956.
In 1953, the Atomic Energy Commission filed official charges against Oppenheimer, based primarily on his association with communists, including family members, and his security clearance was denied. In response Oppenheimer requested a Congressional hearing, and while many scientists spoke in his favor, Teller appeared to testify against him.
In 1956, he assured the Navy that Livermore could build a warhead small enough to be fired from a submarine, and in 1960, the first Polaris submarine was armed with such a warhead. Also during the 50s, Teller became fascinated by the prospect of nuclear fusion, where power is produced by fusing atoms together (as opposed to fission, which splits them). Livermore became a center for fusion research.
Throughout the 60s and 70s, Teller was an outspoken advocate of nuclear power. As early as 1962, he began advancing the idea of an "active defense system" to shoot down attacking enemy missiles, and he became increasingly convinced that a nuclear shield could remove the threat of a retaliatory nuclear strike.
Teller’s friend Ronald Reagan depended on Teller for advice after he was elected President in 1980, and Teller succeeded in getting funding for an active nuclear defense system. Reagan supported the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or "Stars Wars", in large part because Teller convinced him it was possible. Whatever the feasibility, the proposal was partly intended to push the Soviet Union into an arms race that would ruin it financially.
ASSESSMENT: Considered by many responsible for the concept of the Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI).
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: His work related to that of mathematician Neumann* and physicist Bush*, as well as to spy Fuchs*@@
ONELINER: Edward Teller, “father of the hydrogen bomb”
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Colliers Encyclopaedia
Gray, Chris Hables, "Teller, Edward" in Notable Twentieth Century Scientists, ed. Emily J. McMurray, New York & London: Gale Research Inc., 1995