Teller, Edward (1908–2003)

Edward Teller, colloquially known as the “father of the hydrogen bomb,” dedicated his life to the development and advancement of nuclear science. A controversial figure within both the public and scientific domains, Teller's contributions to science changed the way in which countries waged war, developed defense strategies, and considered alternative energy sources. His work, including a seminal piece on the nature of the hydrogen ion, underpins many of the key nuclear power and weaponry issues facing the world today, and his influence helped shape the public perception of science in ways that are still apparent.

Edward (Hungarian name Ede) Teller was born into a wealthy Jewish family on January 15, 1908, in Budapest, Hungary. He established himself as a mathematical prodigy and later developed an interest in physics. In 1926, he left Hungary to study chemical engineering in Karlsruhe, Germany. There he was introduced to the new theory of quantum mechanics, and his interest in this field led him to transfer to the University of Munich in 1928.

While he was in Munich, Teller lost his right foot in a streetcar accident. He temporarily suspended his studies while he recovered from his injuries and learned how to walk on a prosthetic foot. On recommencing his studies, he transferred to the University of Leipzig to study with Werner Heisenberg, who was widely considered to be at the forefront of research in quantum physics.

After receiving his doctorate in physics in 1930, Teller began his career as a research consultant at the University of Göttingen in central Germany. Here he published his first paper, “Hydrogen Molecular Ion.” This was one of the earliest descriptions of the molecule and much of Teller's work here provides what is still the most widely held understanding of the hydrogen molecule today.

Political events had a great influence on Teller's life. In 1934, with the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, Teller migrated to Denmark where Jewish scientists had better prospects. He joined the Institute for Theoretical Physics, already home to eminent scientists such as Niels Bohr, who was leading a team working to discover the secrets of the atom. It was here that Teller met another political refugee, Russian physicist George Gamow. In 1935, Teller joined Gamow at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. There they developed the Gamow-Teller rules for classifying subatomic particle behavior in radioactive decay. They also attempted to apply knowledge of atomic behavior to astrophysics.

In 1939, Hitler's Germany discovered nuclear fission, causing physicists elsewhere in the world to fear that Hitler held the key to the world's most powerful weapon. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appealed to the scientific community to actively apply their knowledge and research in defense of freedom as they knew it. Consequently, over the next 2 years, the Manhattan Project was launched—a team of America's best physicists racing to develop the atomic bomb before Germany did.

At the top-secret Los Alamos, New Mexico, laboratory facility, under the leadership of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Teller worked to use the extreme heat generated by nuclear fission to trigger the process of nuclear fusion. His attempts were thwarted by the extreme difficulty of building even a simple fission device, and, to his disappointment, the attempts were abandoned. Teller's calculations of the impact of a nuclear explosion were used, however, to reassure the Manhattan Project team that an atomic explosion would only impact a limited area, rather than a more global scale as feared. This provided the impetus for the successful development of the atomic bomb, first tested in 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and weeks later used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

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