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Dr. Edward Teller

Theoretical Physicist, Manhattan Project (Los Alamos, 1943-1946), 1943-2003 (nuclear weapons and national security)

Case File
BornJanuary 15, 1908, Budapest, Austria-Hungary
DiedSeptember 9, 2003, Stanford, California
AliasesEdward Teller, Father of the Hydrogen Bomb
Service1943-2003 (nuclear weapons and national security)
ClearanceTop Secret — Q clearance (DoE); held highest-level nuclear weapons clearances throughout career

Summary

Hungarian-American theoretical physicist widely regarded as the father of the hydrogen bomb. As a Manhattan Project scientist at Los Alamos, co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and one of the most influential voices in U.S. nuclear weapons policy for six decades, Teller operated at the apex of classified American science. His relevance to UAP research is specific and contested: Bob Lazar claims that in November 1988, Teller called him after they had briefly met at a Los Alamos lecture and provided the EG&G contact that led to Lazar's alleged employment at the S-4 facility at Papoose Lake. Teller never confirmed or denied this account before his death in 2003. His unparalleled access to the deepest layers of U.S. classified defense science makes him a plausible intermediary in Lazar's account, though no independent corroboration has been produced.

Roles

  • -Theoretical Physicist, Manhattan Project (Los Alamos, 1943-1946)
  • -Co-Founder and Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1952-1975)
  • -Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
  • -Presidential Science Advisor (Eisenhower, Reagan administrations)

Organizations

Manhattan Project — Los Alamos National LaboratoryLawrence Livermore National LaboratoryUniversity of ChicagoHoover Institution, Stanford UniversityJASON Defense Advisory Group

Education

  • -B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 1928
  • -Ph.D. in Physics, University of Leipzig (under Werner Heisenberg), 1930

Early Career

  • -Born January 15, 1908, in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary), to a prosperous Jewish family
  • -Lost his right foot in a Munich tram accident in 1928; wore a prosthetic throughout his life
  • -Received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Leipzig in 1930 under Werner Heisenberg
  • -Fled Nazi Germany in 1933 after Hitler's rise; held positions in Copenhagen (under Niels Bohr) and London before emigrating to the United States in 1935
  • -Joined George Washington University (Washington D.C.) as professor of physics in 1935, where he collaborated with George Gamow on foundational work in nuclear and molecular physics
  • -Joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1943; became focused on the thermonuclear weapon concept over the fission bomb, which created friction with Robert Oppenheimer and other program leaders