88 Facts About Edward Teller

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb", although he did not care for the title, considering it to be in poor taste.

Edward Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy, and surface physics.

In 1953, along with Nicholas Metropolis, Arianna Rosenbluth, Marshall Rosenbluth, and his wife Augusta Edward Teller, Edward Teller co-authored a paper that is a standard starting point for the applications of the Monte Carlo method to statistical mechanics and the Markov chain Monte Carlo literature in Bayesian statistics.

Edward Teller was an early member of the Manhattan Project, charged with developing the first atomic bomb.

Edward Teller made a serious push to develop the first fusion-based weapons as well, but these were deferred until after World War II.

Edward Teller co-founded the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and was both its director and associate director for many years.

Edward Teller continued to find support from the US government and military research establishment, particularly for his advocacy for nuclear energy development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous nuclear testing program.

Edward Teller was a recipient of numerous awards, including the Enrico Fermi Award and Albert Einstein Award.

Edward Teller died on September 9,2003, in Stanford, California, at 95.

Ede Edward Teller was born on January 15,1908, in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, into a Jewish family.

Edward Teller's parents were Ilona, a pianist, and Max Teller, an attorney.

Edward Teller attended the Fasori Lutheran Gymnasium, then in the Lutheran Minta Gymnasium in Budapest.

Edward Teller left Hungary for Germany in 1926, partly due to the discriminatory numerus clausus rule under Miklos Horthy's regime.

From 1926 to 1928, Edward Teller studied mathematics and chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering.

Edward Teller once stated that the person who was responsible for his becoming a physicist was Herman Mark, who was a visiting professor, 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.

Edward Teller 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.

Edward Teller then attended the University of Munich where he studied physics under Arnold Sommerfeld.

Edward Teller fell, and the wheel severed most of his right foot.

In 1929, Edward Teller transferred to the University of Leipzig where in 1930, he received his PhD in physics under Heisenberg.

Edward Teller's dissertation dealt with one of the first accurate quantum mechanical treatments of the hydrogen molecular ion.

Also in 1930, Edward Teller moved to the University of Gottingen, then one of the world's great centers of physics due to the presence of Max Born and James Franck, 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.

Edward Teller went briefly to England, and moved for a year to Copenhagen, where he worked under Niels Bohr.

Edward Teller's 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.

When World War II began, Edward Teller wanted to contribute to the war effort.

In 1942, Edward Teller was invited to be part of Robert Oppenheimer's summer planning seminar, at the University of California, Berkeley for the origins of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop the first nuclear weapons.

Edward Teller was left behind at first, because while he and Mici were now American citizens, they still had relatives in enemy countries.

Apparently, Edward Teller managed to annoy his neighbors there by playing the piano late in the night.

Edward Teller was given a secret identity of Ed Tilden.

Edward Teller was irked at being passed over as its head; the job was instead given to Hans Bethe.

Edward Teller investigated using uranium hydride instead of uranium metal, but its efficiency turned out to be "negligible or less".

Edward Teller continued to push his ideas for a fusion weapon even though it had been put on a low priority during the war.

Edward Teller confirmed Teller's own results: the Super was not going to work.

Edward Teller was replaced by Rudolf Peierls from the British Mission, who in turn brought in Klaus Fuchs, who was later revealed to be a Soviet spy.

Edward Teller made valuable contributions to bomb research, especially in the elucidation of the implosion mechanism.

Edward Teller was the first to propose the solid pit design that was eventually successful.

Edward Teller was one of the few scientists to actually watch the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, rather than follow orders to lie on the ground with backs turned.

Edward Teller later said that the atomic flash "was as if I had pulled open the curtain in a dark room and broad daylight streamed in".

Edward Teller believed that Oppenheimer was a natural leader and could help him with such a formidable political problem.

Edward Teller therefore penned a letter in response to Szilard that read:.

Edward Teller later learned of Oppenheimer's solicitation and his role in the Interim Committee's decision to drop the bombs, having secretly endorsed an immediate military use of the new weapons.

In 1990, the historian Barton Bernstein argued that it is an "unconvincing claim" by Edward Teller that he was a "covert dissenter" to the use of the bomb.

Edward Teller returned to Los Alamos in 1950 to work on the project.

Edward Teller insisted on involving more theorists, but many of Teller's prominent colleagues, like Fermi and Oppenheimer, were sure that the project of the H-bomb was technically infeasible and politically undesirable.

Edward Teller came to me with a part of an idea which I already had worked out and had difficulty getting people to listen to.

Ulam himself claimed that Edward Teller only produced a "more generalized" version of Ulam's original design.

Ulam's idea seems to have been to use mechanical shock from the primary to encourage fusion in the secondary, while Edward Teller quickly realized that X-rays from the primary would do the job much more symmetrically.

Many of Edward Teller's colleagues were irritated that he seemed to enjoy taking full credit for something he had only a part in, and in response, with encouragement from Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller authored an article titled "The Work of Many People", which appeared in Science magazine in February 1955, emphasizing that he was not alone in the weapon's development.

At Livermore, Edward Teller continued work on the hydride bomb, and the result was a dud.

Carey Sublette of Nuclear Weapon Archive argues that Ulam came up with the radiation implosion compression design of thermonuclear weapons, but that on the other hand Edward Teller has gotten little credit for being the first to propose fusion boosting in 1945, which is essential for miniaturization and reliability and is used in all of today's nuclear weapons.

Edward Teller became controversial in 1954 when he testified against Oppenheimer at Oppenheimer's security clearance hearing.

Edward Teller had clashed with Oppenheimer many times at Los Alamos over issues relating both to fission and fusion research, and during Oppenheimer's trial he was the only member of the scientific community to state that Oppenheimer should not be granted security clearance.

Edward Teller was immediately asked whether he believed that Oppenheimer was a "security risk", to which he testified:.

Edward Teller testified that Oppenheimer's opinion about the thermonuclear program seemed to be based more on the scientific feasibility of the weapon than anything else.

Edward Teller's testimony thereby rendered Oppenheimer vulnerable to charges by a Congressional aide that he was a Soviet spy, which resulted in the destruction of Oppenheimer's career.

Six days before the testimony, Edward Teller met with an AEC liaison officer and suggested "deepening the charges" in his testimony.

Edward Teller always insisted that his testimony had not significantly harmed Oppenheimer.

In 2002, Edward Teller contended that Oppenheimer was "not destroyed" by the security hearing but "no longer asked to assist in policy matters".

Edward Teller claimed his words were an overreaction, because he had only just learned of Oppenheimer's failure to immediately report an approach by Haakon Chevalier, who had approached Oppenheimer to help the Russians.

Edward Teller said that, in hindsight, he would have responded differently.

Edward Teller promoted increased defense spending to counter the perceived Soviet missile threat.

Edward Teller was Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which he helped to found with Ernest O Lawrence, from 1958 to 1960, and after that he continued as an associate director.

Edward Teller chaired the committee that founded the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley.

Edward Teller served concurrently as a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Edward Teller testified against the test ban both before Congress as well as on television.

Teller established the Department of Applied Science at the University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1963, which holds the Edward Teller endowed professorship in his honor.

Edward Teller was one of the first prominent people to raise the danger of climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels.

Edward Teller was one of the strongest and best-known advocates for investigating non-military uses of nuclear explosives, which the United States explored under Operation Plowshare.

Edward Teller proposed the use of nuclear bombs to prevent damage from powerful hurricanes.

Edward Teller argued that when conditions in the Atlantic Ocean are right for the formation of hurricanes, the heat generated by well-placed nuclear explosions could trigger several small hurricanes, rather than waiting for nature to build one large one.

For some twenty years, Edward Teller advised Israel on nuclear matters in general, and on the building of a hydrogen bomb in particular.

Between 1964 and 1967, Edward Teller visited Israel six times, lecturing at Tel Aviv University, and advising the chiefs of Israel's scientific-security circle as well as prime ministers and cabinet members.

In 1967 when the Israeli nuclear program was nearing completion, Edward Teller informed Neeman that he was going to tell the CIA that Israel had built nuclear weapons, and explain that it was justified by the background of the Six-Day War.

Edward Teller persuaded them to end the American attempts to inspect the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona.

Three decades later, Edward Teller confirmed that it was during his visits that he concluded that Israel was in possession of nuclear weapons.

Edward Teller suffered a heart attack in 1979, and blamed it on Jane Fonda, who had starred in The China Syndrome, which depicted a fictional reactor accident and was released less than two weeks before the Three Mile Island accident.

Edward Teller spoke out against nuclear power while promoting the film.

Edward Teller signed a two-page-spread ad in the July 31,1979, issue of The Washington Post with the headline "I was the only victim of Three-Mile Island".

Scandal erupted when Edward Teller were accused of deliberately overselling the program and perhaps encouraging the dismissal of a laboratory director who had attempted to correct the error.

Edward Teller's claims led to a joke which circulated in the scientific community, that a new unit of unfounded optimism was designated as the teller; one teller was so large that most events had to be measured in nanotellers or picotellers.

In 1987 Edward Teller published a book entitled Better a Shield than a Sword, which supported civil defense and active protection systems.

Edward Teller died in Stanford, California, on September 9,2003, at the age of 95.

Edward Teller had suffered a stroke two days before and had long been experiencing a number of conditions related to his advanced age.

Edward Teller was rumored to be one of the inspirations for the character of Dr Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 satirical film of the same name.

In 1981, Edward Teller became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.

Edward Teller was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1948.

Edward Teller was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Nuclear Society, and the American Physical Society.

Edward Teller was named as part of the group of "US Scientists" who were Time magazine's People of the Year in 1960, and an asteroid, 5006 Teller, is named after him.

Edward Teller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush in 2003, less than two months before his death.