Editing J. Robert Oppenheimer (section)

== Early life ==
=== Childhood and education ===
Oppenheimer was born Julius Robert Oppenheimer{{refn|group=note|name=initialJ|Oppenheimer's birth certificate reads "Julius Robert Oppenheimer,"{{sfn|Cassidy|2005|p=2}}<ref>{{harvnb|Pais|2006|p=355 (end plates)}}</ref> and his college transcript "J Robert Oppenheimer."{{sfn|Smith|Weiner|1980|p=337}} Oppenheimer himself said the ''J'' stood for nothing, and his brother Frank "surmised that the ''J'' was symbolic, a gesture in the direction of naming the eldest son after the father but at the same time a signal that his parents did not want Robert to be a 'junior.{{' "}}<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Weiner|1980|p=1}}</ref>}} into a non-observant Jewish family in New York City on April 22, 1904, to Ella (née Friedman), a painter, and Julius Seligmann Oppenheimer, a successful textile importer.<ref>{{harvnb|Schweber|2008|p=283}}</ref><ref name="Cassidy, pp. 5-11">{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=5–11}}</ref> Robert had a younger brother, [[Frank Oppenheimer|Frank]], who also became a physicist.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=16, 145, 282}}</ref> His father was born in [[Hanau]], when it was still part of the [[Province of Hesse-Nassau|Hesse-Nassau province]] of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]], and as a teenager made his way to the United States in 1888, without money, higher education, or even English. He was hired by a textile company and within a decade was an executive there, eventually becoming wealthy.<ref>{{harvnb|Bird|Sherwin|2005|p=10}}</ref> In 1912, the family moved to an apartment on [[Riverside Drive (Manhattan)|Riverside Drive]] near West 88th Street, [[Hudson Heights, New York]], an area known for luxurious mansions and townhouses.<ref name="Cassidy, pp. 5-11"/> Their art collection included works by [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Édouard Vuillard]], and [[Vincent van Gogh]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bird|Sherwin|2005|p=12}}</ref>

Oppenheimer was initially educated at Alcuin Preparatory School. In 1911, he entered the [[Ethical Culture Fieldston School|Ethical Culture Society School]],<ref name="Cassidy 2005 35">{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|p=35}}</ref> founded by [[Felix Adler (professor)|Felix Adler]] to promote training based on the [[Ethical movement]], whose motto was "Deed before Creed". Oppenheimer's father had been a member of the Society for many years, serving on its board of trustees.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=23, 29}}</ref> Oppenheimer was a versatile student, interested in English and French literature, and particularly [[mineralogy]].<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=16–17}}</ref> He completed third and fourth grades in one year and skipped half of eighth grade.<ref name="Cassidy 2005 35" /> He took private music lessons by famous French flutist [[Georges Barrère]]. During his final year of school, Oppenheimer became interested in chemistry.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=43–46}}</ref> He graduated in 1921, but his further education was delayed a year by an attack of [[ulcerative colitis|colitis]] contracted while [[prospecting]] in [[Jáchymov]] during a family vacation in [[Czechoslovakia]]. He recovered in [[New Mexico]], where he developed a love for horseback riding and the southwestern United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=61–63}}</ref>

Oppenheimer entered [[Harvard College]] in 1922 at age 18. He majored in chemistry; Harvard also required studies in history, literature, and philosophy or mathematics. To compensate for the delay caused by his illness, he took six courses each term instead of the usual four. He was admitted to the undergraduate honor society [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and was granted graduate standing in physics on the basis of independent study, allowing him to bypass basic courses in favor of advanced ones. He was attracted to experimental physics by a course on [[thermodynamics]] taught by [[Percy Williams Bridgman|Percy Bridgman]]. Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard in 1925 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]], ''[[summa cum laude]]'', after only three years of study.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=75–76, 88–89}}</ref>

=== Studies in Europe ===
[[File:Leiden Kamerlingh-Onnes Lab.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|[[Heike Kamerlingh Onnes]]' Laboratory in [[Leiden]], Netherlands, July 1927. Oppenheimer is in the middle row, second from the left.|alt=Fifteen men in suits, and one woman, pose for a group photograph]]
After being accepted at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], in 1924, Oppenheimer wrote to [[Ernest Rutherford]] requesting permission to work at the [[Cavendish Laboratory]], though Bridgman's letter of recommendation said that Oppenheimer's clumsiness in the laboratory suggested that theoretical, rather than experimental, physics would be his forte. Rutherford was unimpressed, but Oppenheimer went to Cambridge nonetheless;<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|pp=90–92}}</ref> [[J. J. Thomson]] ultimately accepted him on the condition that he complete a basic laboratory course.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|p=94}}</ref>

Oppenheimer was very unhappy at Cambridge and wrote to a friend: "I am having a pretty bad time. The lab work is a terrible bore, and I am so bad at it that it is impossible to feel that I am learning anything."{{sfn|Monk|2012|p=92}} He developed an antagonistic relationship with his tutor, [[Patrick Blackett]], a future Nobel laureate. According to Oppenheimer's friend [[Francis Fergusson]], Oppenheimer once confessed to leaving a poisoned apple on Blackett's desk, and Oppenheimer's parents convinced the university authorities not to expel him. There are no records of either a poisoning incident or probation, but Oppenheimer had regular sessions with a psychiatrist in [[Harley Street]], London.{{sfn|Bird|Sherwin|2005|p=46}}{{sfn|Monk|2012|p=97}}<ref>{{cite magazine|author=McCluskey, Megan|title=J. Robert Oppenheimer's Grandson on What the Movie Gets Right and the One Scene He Would Have Changed|url=https://time.com/6297743/oppenheimer-grandson-movie-interview/|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=July 25, 2023|access-date=July 26, 2023|archive-date=July 27, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230727190222/https://time.com/6297743/oppenheimer-grandson-movie-interview/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Oppenheimer and the poisoned apple |date=August 15, 2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Library Special Collections |url=https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=26027 |access-date=December 9, 2023 |archive-date=December 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209170716/https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=26027 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Oppenheimer was a tall, thin [[Chain smoking|chain smoker]],<ref>{{harvnb|Bird|Sherwin|2005|pp=39–40, 96, 258}}</ref> who often neglected to eat during periods of intense concentration. Many friends said he could be self-destructive. Fergusson once tried to distract Oppenheimer from apparent depression by telling him about his girlfriend, Frances Keeley, and how he had proposed to her. Oppenheimer jumped on Fergusson and tried to strangle him. Oppenheimer was plagued by periods of depression throughout his life,<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Weiner|1980|p=91}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bird|Sherwin|2005|pp=35–36, 43–47, 51–52, 320, 353}}</ref> and once told his brother, "I need physics more than friends."<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Weiner|1980|p=135}}</ref>

In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge for the [[University of Göttingen]] to study under [[Max Born]]; Göttingen was one of the world's leading centers for theoretical physics. Oppenheimer made friends who went on to great success, including [[Werner Heisenberg]], [[Pascual Jordan]], [[Wolfgang Pauli]], [[Paul Dirac]], [[Enrico Fermi]] and [[Edward Teller]]. He was enthusiastic in discussions to the point of sometimes taking them over.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|p=108}}</ref> [[Maria Goeppert]] presented Born with a petition signed by herself and others threatening a boycott of the class unless he made Oppenheimer quiet down. Born left it out on his desk where Oppenheimer could read it, and it was effective without a word being said.<ref>{{harvnb|Bird|Sherwin|2005|p=60}}</ref>

Oppenheimer obtained his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree in March 1927 at age 23, supervised by Born.<ref name=phd>{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|first=Julius Robert|last=Oppenheimer|year=1927|title=Zur Quantentheorie kontinuierlicher Spektren|oclc=71902137}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|p=109}}</ref> After the oral exam, [[James Franck]], the professor administering it, reportedly said, "I'm glad that's over. He was on the point of questioning ''me''."<ref name="Eternal Apprentice">{{cite magazine |date=November 8, 1948 |title=The Eternal Apprentice |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853367,00.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=May 23, 2008 |archive-date=October 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007024559/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853367,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Oppenheimer published more than a dozen papers while in Europe, including many important contributions to the new field of quantum mechanics. He and Born published a famous paper on the [[Born–Oppenheimer approximation]], which separates nuclear motion from electronic motion in the mathematical treatment of molecules, allowing nuclear motion to be neglected to simplify calculations. It remains his most cited work.<ref>{{harvnb|Cassidy|2005|p=112}}</ref>