Edward Teller - Significance
In 1939, Physicist, Edward Teller was part of the group of scientists that invented the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. He was the co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where together with Ernest Lawrence, Luis Alvarez, and others he invented the hydrogen bomb in 1951.Edward Teller Education
Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1908. He received his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Although his early training was in chemical physics and spectroscopy, Edward Teller has made substantial contributions to such diverse fields as nuclear physics, plasma physics, astrophysics, and statistical mechanics.
Edward Teller - Atomic Bomb
It was Edward Teller who drove Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner to meet with Albert Einstein, who together would write a letter to President Roosevelt urging him to pursue atomic weapons research before the Nazis did. Teller worked on the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and later became the Lab's assistant director.
Edward Teller - Hydrogen Bomb
In 1951, while still at Los Alamos, Edward Teller had the idea for a thermonuclear weapon. He then led the successful development and testing of the first hydrogen bomb. In 1952, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller opened the Livermore branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory, for the next fifty years Edward Teller did his research at the Livermore. Between 1956 to 1960, he proposed and developed the development of thermonuclear warheads small and light enough to be carried on submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Edward Teller - Awards
Edward Teller published more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from energy policy to defense issues, received numerous awards for his contributions to physics and public life, and has been awarded 23 honorary degrees.Two months before his death, Edward Teller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civil honor, during a special ceremony conducted by President George W. Bush at the White House.
