Edward Teller

(1908 - 2003)

Born in Budapest, the theoretical physicist Edward Teller, known as the “father of the hydrogen bomb,” moved to the United States during World War II and taught at George Washington University, becoming an American citizen in 1941. He helped Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard draft a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the threat of a nuclear Germany, and in 1942 he was invited to participate in J. Robert Oppenheimer’s planning of the Manhattan Project. Teller’s insistence on developing a hydrogen bomb caused divisions among his colleagues. In 1954, when Oppenheimer was on trial for possible connections to the Communist Party, Teller testified against him: “I would like to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better.”