Editing Edward Teller (section)

== Early life and work ==
Ede Teller was born on January 15, 1908, in [[Budapest]], then part of [[Austria-Hungary]], into a [[History of the Jews in Hungary|Jewish]] family. His parents were Ilona (née Deutsch),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R7phyBbqZDoC&pg=PA10|title=The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0198039679}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9i9bgMLVjWsC&pg=PA15|title=Edward Teller Centennial Symposium: Modern Physics and the Scientific Legacy of Edward Teller: Livermore, CA 2008|isbn=978-9812838001|last1=Libby|first1=Stephen B.|last2=Van Bibber|first2=Karl A.|year=2010|publisher=World Scientific }}</ref> a pianist, and <!--Miksa ({{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}-->Miksa<!--)--> Teller<!-- (1871–1950){{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}-->, an attorney.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/us/edward-teller-is-dead-at-95-fierce-architect-of-h-bomb.html |newspaper = [[The New York Times]] |title = Edward Teller Is Dead at 95; Fierce Architect of H-Bomb |date=September 10, 2003}}</ref> He attended the [[Minta Gymnasium]] in Budapest.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Horvath |first1=Tibor |title=Theodore Karman, Paul Wigner, John Neumann, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Their Ideas of Ultimate Reality and Meaning |journal=Ultimate Reality and Meaning |date=June 1997 |volume=20 |issue=2–3 |pages=123–146 |doi=10.3138/uram.20.2-3.123 |language=en |issn=0709-549X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Teller was an agnostic. "Religion was not an issue in my family", he later wrote, "indeed, it was never discussed. My only religious training came because the Minta required that all students take classes in their respective religions. My family celebrated one holiday, the [[Yom Kippur|Day of Atonement]], when we all fasted. Yet my father said prayers for his parents on Saturdays and on all the Jewish holidays. The idea of God that I absorbed was that it would be wonderful if He existed: We needed Him desperately but had not seen Him in many thousands of years."{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|p=32}} Teller was a [[Language delay|late talker]], but he became very interested in numbers and for fun calculated large numbers in his head.<ref>{{YouTube|8vnNwSwTfsU|Video in which Teller recalls his earliest memories}}</ref>

[[File:Edward Teller (boy).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Teller in his youth]]
Teller left Hungary for Germany in 1926, partly due to the discriminatory ''[[numerus clausus]]'' rule under [[Miklós Horthy]]'s regime. The [[Hungary between the World Wars|political climate and revolutions in Hungary]] during his youth instilled a lingering animosity toward [[Communism]] and [[Fascism]].<ref name="stix">{{cite journal | author=Stix, Gary | title=Infamy and honor at the Atomic Café: Edward Teller has no regrets about his contentious career | journal=[[Scientific American]] |date=October 1999 | pages=42–43 | url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0003A1F2-E235-1C73-9B81809EC588EF21&pageNumber=1&catID=2 | access-date=November 25, 2007 | author-link=Gary Stix| doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1099-42 }}</ref>

From 1926 to 1928, Teller studied mathematics and chemistry at the [[University of Karlsruhe]], from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in [[chemical engineering]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Teller - Nuclear Museum |url=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/edward-teller/ |website=ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ |access-date=10 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Manhattan Project Scientists: Edward Teller (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/manhattan-project-scientists-edward-teller.htm |website=www.nps.gov |access-date=10 June 2023 |language=en}}</ref> He once stated that the person who was responsible for his becoming a physicist was [[Herman Mark]], who was a visiting professor,<ref>[https://www.webofstories.com/play/edward.teller/18 Edward Teller - The inspiration of Herman Mark (segment 18 of 147)], June 1996 interview with John H. Nuckolls, former director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (posted on January 24, 2008)<br />[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Felm2rkF3wk Alternate source video] (uploaded to Web of Stories YouTube channel on September 27, 2017)</ref> after hearing lectures on molecular spectroscopy where Mark made it clear to him that it was new ideas in physics that were radically changing the frontier of chemistry.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130329111407/https://biography.yourdictionary.com/edward-teller Edward Teller Facts], quote:<br />"Leaving Hungary because of anti-Semitism, Teller went to Germany to study chemistry and mathematics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology from 1926 to 1928. A lecture he heard by Herman Mark on the new science of molecular spectroscopy made a lasting impression on him: "He [Mark] made it clear that new ideas in physics had changed chemistry into an important part of the forefront of physics."</ref> Mark was an expert in [[polymer chemistry]], a field which is essential to understanding biochemistry, and Mark taught him about the leading breakthroughs in [[quantum physics]] made by [[Louis de Broglie]], among others. It was his exposure to Mark's lectures that initially motivated Teller to switch to physics.<ref>[https://www.webofstories.com/play/edward.teller/16 Edward Teller – Wave-particle duality sparked a fascination with physics (segment 16 of 147)], June 1996 interview with John H. Nuckolls, former director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (posted on 24 January 2008)<br />[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZqqwoNRlso Alternate source video] (uploaded to Web of Stories YouTube channel on Sep 27, 2017)<br />[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZqqwoNRlso&t=1m17s Quote]:<br />"This theory [of polymer chemistry, and its relation to quantum physics] managed to make in me a big change from an interest in mathematics to an interest in physics."</ref> After informing his father of his intent to switch, his father was so concerned that he traveled to visit him and speak with his professors at the school. While a degree in chemical engineering was a sure path to a well-paying job at chemical companies, there was not such a clear-cut route for a career with a degree in physics. He was not privy to the discussions his father had with his professors, but the result was that he got his father's permission to become a physicist.<ref>[https://www.webofstories.com/play/edward.teller/17 Edward Teller – Permission to become a physicist (segment 17 of 147)], June 1996 interview with John H. Nuckolls, former director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (posted on January 24, 2008)<br />[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_0xe476-nU&t=1m48s&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFw1phnddYWXtVkRW8eUVlqx&index=17 Alternate source video] (uploaded to Web of Stories YouTube channel on September 27, 2017)</ref>

Teller then attended the [[University of Munich]], where he studied physics under [[Arnold Sommerfeld]]. In 1928, while still a student in [[Munich]], he fell under a streetcar and his right foot was nearly severed. For the rest of his life, he walked with a limp, and on occasion he wore a [[prosthetic]] foot.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OMu6l3kO0M Edward Teller – Jumping off the moving train (segment 20 of 147)], June 1996 interview with John H. Nuckolls, former director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (posted on January 24, 2008) (uploaded to Web of Stories YouTube channel on September 27, 2017)</ref>{{sfn|Rhodes|1986|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aSgFMMNQ6G4C 189]}} The [[painkillers]] he was taking were interfering with his thinking, so he decided to stop taking them, instead using his willpower to deal with the pain, including use of the [[placebo effect]], by which he convinced himself that he had taken painkillers rather than water.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_oGLN0p3Gc&t=22m43s Edward Teller and the Other Martians of Science by Istvan Hargittai], [[NIST]] Colloquium, November 4, 2011 (published on YouTube, June 26, 2012)<br />Note:<br />Speaker is the author of ''The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century'' (2006, {{ISBN|978-0195178456}}).</ref> [[Werner Heisenberg]] said that it was the hardiness of Teller's spirit, rather than [[stoicism]], that allowed him to cope so well with the accident.<ref name="Glimpses of an exceptional man">{{cite web |url=https://str.llnl.gov/str/Exceptional.html |title=Glimpses of an exceptional man |first=Gloria |last=Witt |publisher=[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] |access-date=November 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324225708/https://str.llnl.gov/str/Exceptional.html |archive-date=March 24, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Edward Teller passport.jpg|thumb|The Hungarian passport Teller carried when he entered the United States in 1935.]]
In 1929, Teller transferred to the [[University of Leipzig]] where in 1930, he received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in [[physics]] under Heisenberg. Teller's [[dissertation]] dealt with one of the first accurate [[quantum mechanics|quantum mechanical]] treatments of the [[hydrogen molecular ion]]. That year, he befriended Russian physicists [[George Gamow]] and [[Lev Landau]]. Teller's lifelong friendship with a Czech physicist, [[George Placzek]], was also very important for his scientific and philosophical development. It was Placzek who arranged a summer stay in [[Rome, Italy|Rome]] with [[Enrico Fermi]] in 1932, thus orienting Teller's scientific career in nuclear physics.<ref>{{harvnb|Teller|Shoolery|2001|p=80}}; see also {{cite web | publisher=Peoples Archive | title=Interview with Edward Teller, part 40. Going to Rome with Placzek to visit Fermi | url=http://www.webofstories.com/play/edward.teller/40 | access-date=November 13, 2015 }}</ref> Also in 1930, Teller moved to the [[University of Göttingen]], then one of the world's great centers of physics due to the presence of [[Max Born]] and [[James Franck]],{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|pp=70–72}} but after [[Adolf Hitler]] became [[Chancellor of Germany]] in January 1933, Germany became unsafe for Jewish people, and he left through the aid of the [[International Rescue Committee]].{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|pp=77–80}} He went briefly to England, and moved for a year to [[Copenhagen]], where he worked under [[Niels Bohr]].{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|pp=94–104}} In February 1934 he married his long-time girlfriend [[Augusta H. Teller|Augusta Maria "Mici" (pronounced "Mitzi") Harkanyi]], who was the sister of a friend. Since Mici was a Calvinist Christian, Edward and she were married in a Calvinist church.<ref name="Glimpses of an exceptional man" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSrCXJrjjzMC&q=calvinist|isbn=978-0674016699|title=Edward Teller, the Real Dr. Strangelove|year=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press}}</ref> He returned to England in September 1934.{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|p=109}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mhu9BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA233|title = Budapest Scientific: A Guidebook|isbn = 978-0191068492|last1 = Hargittai|first1 = István|last2 = Hargittai|first2 = Magdolna|year= 2015| publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref>

Mici had been a student in [[Pittsburgh]] and wanted to return to the United States. Her chance came in 1935, when, thanks to George Gamow, Teller was invited to the United States to become a professor of physics at [[George Washington University]], where he worked with Gamow until 1941.{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|pp=118–120}} At George Washington University in 1937, Teller predicted the [[Jahn–Teller effect]], which distorts molecules in certain situations; this affects the [[chemical reaction]]s of metals, and in particular the coloration of certain metallic dyes.<ref>{{cite journal | author-link = Hermann Arthur Jahn | first1 = H. | last1 = Jahn | first2 = E. | last2 = Teller | title = Stability of Polyatomic Molecules in Degenerate Electronic States. I. Orbital Degeneracy | date = 1937 | journal = [[Proceedings of the Royal Society A]] | volume = 161 | issue = 905 | pages = 220–235 | doi = 10.1098/rspa.1937.0142|bibcode = 1937RSPSA.161..220J | doi-access = free }}</ref> Teller and [[Hermann Arthur Jahn]] analyzed it as a piece of purely mathematical physics. In collaboration with [[Stephen Brunauer]] and [[Paul Hugh Emmett]], Teller also made an important contribution to [[Surface science|surface physics and chemistry]]: the so-called [[BET theory|Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) isotherm]].<ref>Journal of the American Chemical Society, 60 (2), pp. 309–319 (1938).</ref> Teller and Mici became [[naturalized]] citizens of the United States on March 6, 1941.{{sfn|Teller|Shoolery|2001|p=151}}

At GWU, Teller organized annually with Gamow the [[Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics|Washington Conferences on Theoretical Physics]] (1935–1947) that gathered top level physicists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Astrophysics at GW {{!}} Department of Physics {{!}} Columbian College of Arts & Sciences {{!}} The George Washington University |url=https://physics.columbian.gwu.edu/history-astrophysics-gw |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=Department of Physics {{!}} Columbian College of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref>

When [[World War II]] began, Teller wanted to contribute to the war effort. On the advice of the well-known [[Caltech]] [[aerodynamicist]] and fellow Hungarian [[émigré]] [[Theodore von Kármán]], Teller collaborated with his friend [[Hans Bethe]] in developing a theory of shock-wave propagation. In later years, their explanation of the behavior of the gas behind such a wave proved valuable to scientists who were studying missile re-entry.{{sfn|Brown|Lee|2009|pp=13–14}}