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{{Infobox Scientist
| name        = Edward Teller
| image       = EdwardTeller1958.jpg
| caption=Edward Teller in 1958 as Director of the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]]
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1908|1|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|2003|9|9|1908|1|15}}
| death_place = [[Stanford, California|Stanford]], [[California]]
| nationality = [[Hungary|Hungarian]] </br>
[[United States|American]] 
| residence   = [[United States|U.S.]]  
| known_for   = [[Jahn-Teller effect]]</br>[[Hydrogen bomb]]
| alma_mater  = [[University of Karlsruhe]]</br>[[University of Leipzig]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Werner Heisenberg]] [[Image:Nobel medal dsc06171.jpg|20px]]
| doctoral_students = [[Chen Ning Yang]][[Image:Nobel medal dsc06171.jpg|20px]]</br>[[Lincoln Wolfenstein]]
                  <!--[[Rudolf Renner]]</br>[[Marvin Leonard Goldberger]]</br>[[Hans Peter Dürr]]-->
| work_institution  = [[University of Göttingen]]</br>[[Bohr Institute]]</br>[[George Washington University]]</br>[[Manhattan Project]]</br>[[University of Chicago]]</br>[[University of California, Davis| UC Davis]]</br>[[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]]</br>[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore]]</br>[[Hoover Institution]]
| footnotes  =
}}
'''Edward Teller''' (original [[Hungarian name]] ''Teller Ede'') ([[January 15]] [[1908]] &ndash; [[September 9]] [[2003]]) was a [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born [[United States|American]] [[theoretical physics|theoretical]] [[physicist]], known colloquially as "the father of the [[hydrogen bomb]]," even though he claimed that he did not care for the title.<ref>"I have always considered that description in poor taste." Teller, ''Memoirs'', p. 546.</ref>

Teller is best known for his work on the American nuclear program, specifically as a member of the [[Manhattan Project]] during [[World War II]], his role in the development of the hydrogen bomb, and his long association with [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (which he co-founded and served as a director). He invited contention in the 1950s by his controversial testimony in the [[security clearance]] hearing of his former [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]] colleague [[Robert Oppenheimer]], and thus became ostracized by much of the scientific community. He continued to find support from the U.S. government and military research establishment, particularly for his advocacy for [[nuclear energy]] development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous [[nuclear testing]] program. 

In his later years he became especially known for his advocacy of controversial technological solutions to both military and civilian problems, including a plan to excavate an artificial harbor in Alaska using [[thermonuclear]] explosives. He was a vigorous advocate of [[Ronald Reagan]]'s [[Strategic Defense Initiative]], perhaps overselling the feasibility of the program. Over the course of his life, Teller was known both for his scientific ability and his difficult interpersonal relations and volatile personality, and is considered one of the inspirations for the character [[Dr. Strangelove]] in the 1964 movie of the same name.

===Early life and education===
Teller was born in [[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]] to a [[Jewish]] family.  He left Hungary in 1926. The [[Hungary between the two world wars|political climate and revolutions in Hungary during his youth]] instilled a lingering animosity for both [[Communism]] and [[Fascism]] in Teller.<ref name="stix">
{{cite journal | author=[[Gary Stix|Stix, Gary]] | title=Infamy and honor at the Atomic Café: Edward Teller has no regrets about his contentious career | journal=Scientific American | date=October 1999 | pages=42–43 | url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0003A1F2-E235-1C73-9B81809EC588EF21&pageNumber=1&catID=2
 | accessdate=2007-11-25}}</ref> When he was a young student, his leg was severed in a streetcar accident in Munich, requiring  him to wear a [[prosthetic]] foot and leaving him with a life-long limp. Teller graduated in [[chemical engineering]] at the [[University of Karlsruhe]] and received his Ph.D. in [[physics]] under [[Werner Heisenberg]] at the [[University of Leipzig]]. Teller's [[Ph.D.]] [[dissertation]] dealt with one of the first accurate [[quantum mechanics|quantum mechanical]] treatments of the [[hydrogen|hydrogen molecular ion]]. In 1930 he befriended Russian physicists [[George Gamow]] and  [[Lev Landau]]. Very important for Teller's scientific and philosophical development was his life-long close friendship with a Czech physicist [[George Placzek]]. It was Placzek who arranged for young Teller a summer stay in Rome with [[Enrico Fermi]] and oriented his scientific career to nuclear physics.<ref>Teller, ''Memoirs'', p. 80; see also {{cite web | publisher=Peoples Archive | title=Interview with Edward Teller, part 40. Going to Rome with Placzek to visit Fermi | url=http://www.peoplesarchive.com/search/?searchterms=Placzek&storyId=4424 | accessdate=}}</ref>

He spent two years at the [[University of Göttingen]] and left Germany in 1933 through the aid of the [[Jewish Rescue Committee]]. He went briefly to England and moved for a year to Copenhagen, where he worked under [[Niels Bohr]]. In February 1934, he married "Mici" (Augusta Maria) Harkanyi, the sister of a longtime friend.

In 1935, thanks to George Gamow's incentive, Teller was invited to the United States to become a Professor of Physics at the [[George Washington University]] (GWU), where he worked with Gamow until 1941. Prior to the discovery of [[Nuclear fission|fission]] in 1939, Teller was engaged as a theoretical physicist working in the fields of quantum, [[molecular physics|molecular]], and [[nuclear physics]]. In 1941, after becoming a [[naturalized]] citizen of the United States, his interest turned to the use of nuclear energy, both fusion and fission.  

[[Image:Edward Teller (boy).jpg|right|thumb|150px|Teller as a young boy]]
At GWU, Teller predicted the [[Jahn-Teller Effect]] (1937), which distorts molecules in certain situations; this affects the [[chemical reaction]]s of metals, and in particular the coloration of certain metallic dyes. Teller and [[Hermann Arthur Jahn]] analyzed it as a piece of purely mathematical physics.  In collaboration with Brunauer and Emmet, Teller also made an important contribution to [[Surface science|surface physics and chemistry]]; the so-called [[BET theory|Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) isotherm]].

When World War II began, Teller wanted to contribute to the war effort. On the advice of the well-known [[Caltech]] aerodynamicist and fellow Hungarian émigré [[Theodore von Kármán]], Teller collaborated with his friend [[Hans Bethe]] in developing a theory of shock-wave propagation. In later years, their explanation of the behavior of the gas behind such a wave proved valuable to scientists who were studying [[missile]] re-entry.<ref>For Teller's academic career through 1941, see either Goodchild 2005, chapters 3 to 5, or Blumberg and Panos 1990, chapters 3 to 5; also ''ANB'' [http://www.anb.org/articles/13/13-00581.html George Gamow]. (The ANB has not been updated since Teller's death.) For his own account, see Teller, ''Memoirs'', chapters 6 to 14.</ref>

==Manhattan Project==
In 1942, Teller was invited to be part of [[Robert Oppenheimer]]'s summer planning seminar at [[UC Berkeley]] for the origins of the [[Manhattan Project]], the [[Allies|Allied]] effort to develop the first [[nuclear weapon]]s. A few weeks earlier, Teller had been meeting with his friend and colleague [[Enrico Fermi]] about the prospects of [[Nuclear warfare|atomic warfare]], and Fermi had nonchalantly suggested that perhaps a weapon based on [[nuclear fission]] could be used to set off an even larger [[nuclear fusion]] reaction. Even though he initially explained to Fermi why he thought the idea would not work, Teller was fascinated by the possibility and was quickly bored with the idea of "just" an atomic bomb (even though this was not yet anywhere near completion). At the Berkeley session, Teller diverted discussion from the fission weapon to the possibility of a fusion weapon—what he called the "Super" (an early version of what was later known as a hydrogen bomb).<ref> Rhodes 1995; Herken 2002.</ref>

On [[December 6]], [[1941]], the United States had begun development of the atomic bomb, under the supervision of [[Arthur Compton]], chairman of the [[University of Chicago]] physics department, who coordinated [[uranium]] research with [[Columbia University]], [[Princeton University]], University of Chicago, and [[University of California at Berkeley]]. Eventually Compton transferred the Columbia and Princeton scientists to the [[Metallurgical Laboratory]] at Chicago, and Enrico Fermi moved in at the end of April 1942 and the construction of a [[Chicago Pile 1]] began. Teller was left behind at first, but then called to Chicago two months later. In early 1943, the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos laboratory]] was built to design an [[atomic bomb]] under the supervision of Oppenheimer in {{city-state|Los Alamos|New Mexico}}. Teller moved there in April 1943.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_4.2/hughes.htm | accessdate=2007-10-31 | publisher=Logosonline | title=The Real Edward Teller? | author=Hughes, Colin | date=2005}}</ref>

[[Image:Edward Teller ID badge.png|thumb|150px|left|Teller's ID badge photo from [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]]]]
Teller became part of the Theoretical Physics division at the then-secret [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos laboratory]] during the war, and continued to push his ideas for a fusion weapon even though it had been put on a low priority during the war (as the creation of a fission weapon was proving to be difficult enough by itself). Because of his interest in the H-bomb, and his frustration at having been passed over for director of the theoretical division (the job was instead given to [[Hans Bethe]]), Teller refused to engage in the calculations for the implosion of the fission bomb. This caused tensions with other researchers, as additional scientists had to be employed to do that work—including [[Klaus Fuchs]], who later was revealed to be a [[espionage|Soviet spy]].<ref>Herken 2002.</ref> Apparently, Teller  managed to also irk his neighbors by playing the piano late in the night.<ref name=StanfordDeath/> However, Teller  made some valuable contributions to bomb research, especially in the elucidation of the [[Nuclear weapon design#Implosion method|implosion mechanism]]. 

In 1946, Teller participated in a conference in which the properties of thermonuclear fuels such as [[deuterium]] and the possible design of a hydrogen bomb were discussed. It was concluded that Teller's assessment of a hydrogen bomb had been too favourable, and that both the quantity of deuterium needed, as well as the radiation losses during deuterium burning, would shed doubt on its workability. Addition of expensive [[tritium]] to the thermonuclear mixture would likely lower its ignition temperature, but even so, nobody knew at that time how much tritium would be needed, and whether even tritium addition would encourage heat propagation. At the end of the conference, in spite of opposition by some members such as [[Robert Serber]], Teller submitted an unduly optimistic report in which he said that a hydrogen bomb was feasible, and that further work should be encouraged on its development. Fuchs had also participated in this conference, and transmitted this information to Moscow. The model of Teller's "classical Super" was so uncertain that Oppenheimer would later say that he wished the Russians were building their own hydrogen bomb based on that design, so that it would almost certainly retard their progress on it.<ref>Rhodes 1995, p. 255.</ref>
 
In 1946, Teller left Los Alamos to return to the University of Chicago as a professor and close associate of Enrico Fermi and Maria Mayer.<ref name=LLNL/>

==Hydrogen bomb==
[[Image:Teller-Ulam device 3D.svg|right|thumb|200px|The [[Teller-Ulam design]] kept the fission and fusion fuel physically separated from one another, and used radiation from the primary device "reflected" off of the surrounding casing to compress the secondary.]] 

Following the [[Soviet Union]]'s first test detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949, President [[Harry Truman|Truman]] announced a crash development program for a hydrogen bomb. Teller returned to Los Alamos in 1950 to work on the project. Teller quickly grew impatient with the progress of the program, insisted on involving more theorists, and accused his colleagues of lacking imagination. This worsened his relations with other researchers. None of his designs (or anyone else's), however, were yet workable. Bethe thought that had Teller not pressed for an early H-bomb test, the Russians' own development might possibly have been slowed, particularly as the information [[Klaus Fuchs]] gave them contained many incorrect technical details that rendered a workable H-bomb infeasible. Russian scientists who had worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb have claimed that they could see that the early ideas were infeasible as well as anyone else who had looked at them did, and also claimed that they developed their H-bomb wholly independently.<ref name="bas">{{cite journal | author=[[Yuli Khariton|Khariton, Yuli]] | coauthors=Yuri Smirnov | title=The Khariton version | journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | volume=49 | issue=4  | date=May 1993 | pages=20–31}}</ref>

In 1950, calculations by the Polish mathematician [[Stanislaw Ulam]] and his collaborator Cornelius Everett, along with confirmations by Fermi, had shown that not only was Teller's earlier estimate of the quantity of [[tritium]] needed for the H-bomb a low one, but that even with a higher amount of tritium, the energy losses in the fusion process would be too great to enable the fusion reaction to propagate. However, in 1951, after still many years of fruitless labor on the "Super," an innovative idea from Ulam was seized upon by Teller and developed into the first workable design for a megaton-range hydrogen bomb. The exact contribution provided respectively from Ulam and Teller to what became known as the [[Teller-Ulam design]] is not definitively known in the public domain, and the exact contributions of each and how the final idea was arrived upon has been a point of dispute in both public and classified discussions since the early 1950s.<ref>Rhodes 1995, pp. 461-472.</ref>

In an interview with ''[[Scientific American]]'' from 1999, Teller told the reporter: 

:''"I contributed; Ulam did not. I'm sorry I had to answer it in this abrupt way. Ulam was rightly dissatisfied with an old approach. He came to me with a part of an idea which I already had worked out and difficulty getting people to listen to. He was willing to sign a paper. When it then came to defending that paper and really putting work into it, he refused. He said, <nowiki>'I don't believe in it.'</nowiki>''"<ref name="stix">
{{cite journal | author=[[Gary Stix|Stix, Gary]] | title=Infamy and honor at the Atomic Café: Edward Teller has no regrets about his contentious career | journal=Scientific American | date=October 1999
 | pages=42–43 | url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0003A1F2-E235-1C73-9B81809EC588EF21&pageNumber=1&catID=2
 | accessdate=2007-11-25}}</ref>

The issue is controversial. Bethe considered Teller's contribution to the invention of the H-bomb a true innovation as early as 1952,<ref>{{cite web | author=[[Hans Bethe|Bethe,Hans]] | title=Memorandum on the History of the Thermonuclear Program | year=1952 | publisher=Federation of American Scientists | accessdate=2007-12-15 | url=http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/nuclear/bethe-52.htm}}</ref> and referred to his work as a "stroke of genius" in 1954.<ref name="testimony">
{{cite web | author=[[Hans Bethe|Bethe, Hans]] | title=Testimony in the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer | year=1954 | publisher=Atomic Archive | accessdate=2006-11-10 | url=http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Oppenheimer/OppyTrial2.shtml}}</ref> In both cases, however, Bethe emphasized Teller's role as a way of stressing that the development of the H-bomb could not have been hastened by additional support or funding, and Teller greatly disagreed with Bethe's assessment. Other scientists (antagonistic to Teller, such as [[J. Carson Mark]]) have claimed that Teller would have never gotten any closer without the assistance of Ulam and others.<ref>
{{cite journal | first=Bengt | last=Carlson | title=How Ulam set the stage | journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | volume59 | issue4 | date=July/August 2003 | pages=46–51}}</ref> Ulam himself claimed that Teller only produced a "more generalized" version of Ulam's original design.<ref>{{cite book|title= Adventures of a Mathematician|author=Ulam, Stanislaw|year=1976|publisher=Scribner |isbn= 0684143917 |pages=220}}</ref>

The breakthrough—the details of which are still classified—was apparently the separation of the fission and fusion components of the weapons, and to use the [[radiation]] produced by the fission bomb to first compress the fusion fuel before igniting it. However, compression alone would not have been enough and the other crucial idea—staging the bomb by separating the primary and secondary—seems to have been exclusively contributed by Ulam. Also, Ulam's idea seems to have been to use mechanical shock from the primary to encourage fusion in the secondary, while Teller quickly realized that radiation from the primary would do the job much earlier and more efficiently. Some members of the laboratory (J. Carson Mark in particular) later expressed that the idea to use the radiation would have eventually occurred to anyone working on the physical processes involved, and that the obvious reason why Teller thought of radiation right away was because he was already working on the "[[Operation Greenhouse|Greenhouse]]" tests for the spring of 1951, in which the effect of the energy from a fission bomb on a mixture of deuterium and tritium was going to be investigated.<ref name="rhodes">Rhodes 1995.</ref>

Whatever the actual components of the so-called Teller-Ulam design and the respective contributions of those who worked on it, after it was proposed it was immediately seen by the scientists working on the project as the answer which had been so long sought. Those who previously had doubted whether a fission-fusion bomb would be feasible at all were converted into believing that it was only a matter of time before both the USA and the USSR had developed [[TNT equivalent|multi-megaton]] weapons. Even Oppenheimer, who was originally opposed to the project, called the idea "technically sweet."<ref>{{cite book|title=Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect | author=Thorpe, Charles | year=2006 | publisher=University of Chicago Press | isbn=0226798453 | pages=106}}</ref>

[[Image:Ivy Mike H Bomb.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The 10.4 [[megaton|Mt]] "[[Ivy Mike]]" shot of 1952 appeared to vindicate Teller's long-time advocacy for the [[hydrogen bomb]].]]

Though he had helped to come up with the design and had been a long-time proponent of the concept, Teller was not chosen to head the development project (his reputation of a thorny personality likely played a role in this). In 1952 he left Los Alamos and joined the newly established [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Livermore]] branch of the [[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory|University of California Radiation Laboratory]], which had been created largely through his urging. After the detonation of "[[Ivy Mike]]", the first thermonuclear weapon to utilize the Teller-Ulam configuration, on [[November 1]], [[1952]], Teller became known in the press as the "father of the hydrogen bomb." Teller himself refrained from attending the test—he claimed not to feel welcome at the [[Pacific Proving Grounds]]—and instead saw its results on a [[seismograph]] in the basement of a hall in Berkeley.<ref name="rhodes"/>

By analyzing the fallout from this test, the Soviets (led in their H-bomb work by Soviet scientist [[Andrei Sakharov]]) could have easily deduced that the new design had used compression as the key initiator. However, this was later denied by the Soviet bomb researchers, who later claimed that they were not yet at that time organized to collect fallout data from U.S. tests. Because of official secrecy, little information about the bomb's development was released by the government, and press reports often attributed the entire weapon's design and development to Teller and his new Livermore Laboratory (when it was actually developed by Los Alamos).<ref name="bas"/>

Many of 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, 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. He would later write in his memoirs that he had told a "white lie" in the 1955 article in order to "soothe ruffled feelings", and claimed full credit for the invention.<ref>Teller, ''Memoirs'', p. 407, fn. 6.</ref><ref>
{{cite journal | first=Soshichi | last=Uchii | title=Review of Edward Teller's Memoirs | journal=PHS Newsletter | volume=52 | date=[[2003-07-22]] | url=http://www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/phisci/Newsletters/newslet_52.html}}</ref>

Teller was known for getting engrossed in projects which were theoretically interesting but practically unfeasible (the classic "Super" was one such project.)<ref name=StanfordDeath/> About his work on the hydrogen bomb, Bethe said:

:''"Nobody will blame Teller because the calculations of 1946 were wrong, especially because adequate computing machines were not available at Los Alamos. But he was blamed at Los Alamos for leading the laboratory, and indeed the whole country, into an adventurous programme on the basis of calculations, which he himself must have known to have been very incomplete."''<ref> {{cite journal | title=Comments on The History of the H-Bomb | journal=Los Alamos Science | date=1982 | first=Hans A. | last=Bethe | volume=3 | issue=3 | pages=47 | url=http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00285791.pdf | format=PDF | accessdate=2007-11-28 }}</ref>

During the Manhattan Project, Teller also advocated the development of a bomb using [[uranium|uranium hydride]], which many of his fellow theorists said would be unlikely to work. At Livermore, Teller continued work on the hydride bomb, and the result was a dud. Ulam once wrote to a colleague about an idea he had shared with Teller: "Edward is full of enthusiasm about these possibilities; this is perhaps an indication they will not work." Fermi once said that Teller was the only [[monomania]]c he knew who had several [[mania]]s.<ref>Herken 2002: Fermi on p. 25, Ulam on p. 137</ref>

[[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 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.<ref>[http://whyfiles.org/186ed_teller/4.html 3. Credit - or blame?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==Oppenheimer controversy==
[[Image:Edward Teller (1958)-LLNL.jpg|thumb|right|Teller's testimony against [[Robert Oppenheimer]] in 1954 furthered his process of alienation from many of his former Los Alamos colleagues.]]

The rift between Teller and many of his colleagues was widened in 1954 when he testified against Robert Oppenheimer, former head of Los Alamos and member of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]], at Oppenheimer's security clearance hearing. 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 label Oppenheimer a security risk. 

Asked at the hearing by prosecutor [[Roger Robb]] whether he was planning "to suggest that Dr. Oppenheimer is disloyal to the United States," Teller replied that:

:''I do not want to suggest anything of the kind. I know Oppenheimer as an intellectually most alert and a very complicated person, and I think it would be presumptuous and wrong on my part if I would try in any way to analyze his motives. But I have always assumed, and I now assume that he is loyal to the United States. I believe this, and I shall believe it until I see very conclusive proof to the opposite.''<ref>
{{cite web | first=Edward | last=Teller | title=In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board | publisher=United States Government Printing Office | work=pbs.org | date=28 April 1954 | url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/primary/tellertestimony.html | accessdate=2007-11-24}}</ref>

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

:''In a great number of cases I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer act—I understood that Dr. Oppenheimer acted—in a way which for me was exceedingly hard to understand. I thoroughly disagreed with him in numerous issues and his actions frankly appeared to me confused and complicated. To this extent I feel that I would like to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better, and therefore trust more. In this very limited sense I would like to express a feeling that I would feel personally more secure if public matters would rest in other hands.''<ref name="testimony"/>

Teller also testified that Oppenheimer's opinion about the thermonuclear program seemed to be based more on the scientific feasibility of the weapon than anything else. He additionally testified that Oppenheimer's direction of Los Alamos was "a very outstanding achievement" both as a scientist and an administrator, lauding his "very quick mind" and that he made "just a most wonderful and excellent director."<!-- If the source of this is "testimony", please add named ref -->

After this, however, he detailed ways in which he felt that Oppenheimer had hindered his efforts towards an active thermonuclear development program, and at length criticized Oppenheimer's decisions not to invest more work onto the question at different points in his career, saying: 

:''If it is a question of wisdom and judgment, as demonstrated by actions since 1945, then I would say one would be wiser not to grant clearance.''<ref name="testimony"/>

After a public hearing, the authorities agreed with Teller. Oppenheimer's security clearance was eventually stripped, and Teller was treated as a pariah by many of his former colleagues. In response, Teller began to run with a more military and governmental crowd, becoming the scientific darling of [[Conservatism|conservative]] politicians and thinkers for his advocacy of American scientific and technological supremacy. After the fact, Teller consistently denied that he was intending to damn Oppenheimer, and even claimed that he was attempting to exonerate him. Documentary evidence has suggested that this was likely not the case, however. Six days before the testimony, Teller met with an AEC liaison officer and suggested "deepening the charges" in his testimony.<ref>
{{cite news | author=[[Steven Shapin|Shapin, Steven]] | title=Megaton Man | publisher=London Review of Books | date=[[2002-04-25]] | url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n08/shap01_.html | accessdate=2007-11-24}} Review of Edward Teller's ''Memoirs''.</ref> It has been suggested that Teller's testimony against Oppenheimer was an attempt to remove Oppenheimer from power so that Teller could become the leader of the American nuclear scientist community.<ref name="mcmillan">{{cite book | title=The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and The Birth of the Arms Race | author=McMillan, Priscilla | year=2005 | isbn=0670034223 | publisher=Viking}}</ref>

==Government work and political advocacy==
[[Image:Edward Teller on television.jpg|250px|thumb|right|During the 1960s, Teller argued vigorously against the proposed [[Partial Test Ban Treaty|nuclear test ban]], testifying before Congress as well as on television.]]

Teller was Director of the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (1958–1960), which he helped to found (along with [[Ernest O. Lawrence]]), and after that he continued as an Associate Director. He chaired the committee that founded the [[Space Sciences Laboratory]] at Berkeley. He also served concurrently as a Professor of Physics at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. He was a tireless advocate of a strong nuclear program and argued for continued testing and development—in fact, he stepped down from the directorship of Livermore so that he could better [[Lobbying|lobby]] against the proposed [[Partial Test Ban Treaty|test ban]].<ref>Herken, p. 330.</ref> He testified against the test ban both before Congress as well as on television.

After the Oppenheimer controversy, Teller became ostracized by much of the scientific community, but for obvious reasons was still quite welcome in the government and military science circles. Along with his traditional advocacy for nuclear energy development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous nuclear testing program, he had helped to develop [[nuclear reactor]] safety standards as the chair of the [[Reactor Safeguard Committee]] of the AEC in the late 1940s,<ref>Teller, ''Memoirs'', ch. 22.</ref> and later headed an effort at [[General Atomics]] to design research reactors in which a [[nuclear meltdown]] would be theoretically impossible (the [[TRIGA]]).<ref>Teller, ''Memoirs'', pp. 423–424.</ref>

Teller established the Department of Applied Science at the [[University of California, Davis]] and [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|LLNL]] in 1963, which holds the Edward Teller endowed professorship in his honor.<ref>{{cite press release | title=Hertz Foundation Makes US$1 Million Endowment in Honor of Edward Teller | date=[[1999-06-14]] | accessdate=2007-11-24 | url=http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=4550 | publisher=UC Davis News Service}}</ref> In 1975 he retired from both the lab and Berkeley, and was named Director Emeritus of the Livermore Laboratory and appointed Senior Research Fellow at the [[Hoover Institution]].<ref name=StanfordDeath>{{cite news | url=http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/september24/tellerobit-924.html | work=Stanford Report | publisher=Stanford News Service | date=[[September 10]], [[2003]] | title=Edward Teller, 'Father of the Hydrogen Bomb,' is dead at 95 | author=Shurkin, Joel N | accessdate=2007-11-27}}</ref> After the fall of [[communism]] in Hungary in 1989, he made several visits to his country of origin, and paid careful attention to the political changes there.

==Operation Plowshare and Project Chariot==
[[Image:Project Chariot plans.jpg|right|200px|thumb|One of the ''Chariot'' schemes involved chaining five thermonuclear devices to create the artificial harbor.]]

Teller was one of the strongest and best-known advocates for investigating [[Peaceful nuclear explosions|non-military uses]] of nuclear explosives, known as [[Operation Plowshare]]. One of the most controversial projects he proposed was a plan to use a multi-megaton hydrogen bomb to dig a deep-water harbor more than a mile long and half a mile wide to use for shipment of resources from coal and oil fields through [[Point Hope, Alaska|Point Hope]], [[Alaska]]. The [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] accepted Teller's proposal in 1958 and it was designated [[Operation Chariot (1958)|Project Chariot]]. While the AEC was scouting out the Alaskan site, and having withdrawn the land from the public domain, Teller publicly advocated the economic benefits of the plan, but was unable to convince local government leaders that the plan was financially viable.<ref>O'Neill 1994.</ref>

Other scientists criticized the project as being potentially unsafe for the local wildlife and the [[Inupiat]] people living near the designated area, who were not officially told of the plan until March 1960.<ref>O'Neill, ''Firecracker Boys'', pp, 97, 111; Broad, ''Teller's War'', p.48.</ref> Additionally, it turned out that the harbor would be ice-bound for nine months out of the year. In the end, due to the financial infeasibility of the project and the concerns over radiation-related health issues, the project was cancelled in 1962. 

A related experiment which also had Teller's endorsement was a plan to extract oil from the [[Athabasca Oil Sands|Athabasca oil sands]] in northern [[Alberta]] with nuclear explosions. The plan actually received the endorsement of the Alberta government, but was rejected by the [[Government of Canada]] under [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[John Diefenbaker]], who was opposed to having any nuclear weapons in [[Canada]].<ref>{{cite news | first=Frank | last=Loreto | title=Review of ''Nuclear Dynamite'' | publisher=CM Magazine | volume=8 | issue=17 | date=[[2002-04-26]] | url=http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol8/no17/nucleardynamite.html}}</ref>

==[[Nuclear weapons and Israel]]==
For some twenty years, Teller advised Israel on nuclear matters in general, and on the building of a hydrogen bomb in particular.<ref name=basement>{{cite book | title=The Bomb in the Basement | author=Michael Karpin | isbn=0743265955 | date=2005 | pages=pp. 289-293}}</ref> In 1952, Teller and Oppenheimer had a long meeting with [[Ben-Gurion]] in Tel Aviv, telling him that the best way to accumulate plutonium was to burn natural uranium in a nuclear reactor. Starting in 1964, a connection between Teller and Israel was made by the physicist [[Yuval Neeman]], who had similar political views. Between 1964 and 1967, 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. At each of his talks with members of the Israeli security establishment's highest levels he would make them swear that they would never be tempted into signing the [[Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]]. In 1967 when the Israeli program was nearing completion, 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]]. After Neeman cleared it with Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]], Teller briefed the head of the CIA's Office of Science and Technology, Carl Duckett. It took a year for Teller to convince the CIA that Israel had contained nuclear capability; the information then went through CIA Director [[Richard Helms]] and then to the US president. Teller also persuaded them to end the American attempts to inspect the [[Negev Nuclear Research Center]] in Dimona.

==Three Mile Island==
[[Image:Edward Teller Washington Post Ad.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Teller as "the only victim of [[Three Mile Island]]" in his 1979 ''Washington Post'' pro-nuclear ad]]

Teller suffered a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in 1979, which he blamed on [[Jane Fonda]]; after the [[Three Mile Island accident]], the actress had outspokenly lobbied against [[nuclear reactor|nuclear power]] while promoting her latest movie, ''[[The China Syndrome]]'' (a movie depicting a nuclear accident which had coincidentally been released only a little over a week before the actual incident.) In response, Teller acted quickly to lobby in favor of nuclear energy, testifying to its safety and reliability, and after such a flurry of activity suffered the attack. Teller authored a two-page spread in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' which appeared on [[July 31]], [[1979]], under the headline "I was the only victim of Three-Mile Island", which opened with:

{{cquote|On May 7, a few weeks after the accident at Three-Mile Island, I was in Washington. I was there to refute some of that [[propaganda]] that [[Ralph Nader]], Jane Fonda and their kind are spewing to the news media in their attempt to frighten people away from nuclear power. I am 71 years old, and I was working 20 hours a day. The strain was too much. The next day, I suffered a heart attack. You might say that I was the only one whose health was affected by that reactor near Harrisburg. No, that would be wrong. It was not the reactor. It was Jane Fonda. Reactors are not dangerous.<ref>"I was the only victim of Three-Mile Island," [advertisement] ''The Washington Post'', ([[31 July]] [[1979]]): 24–25.</ref>}}

The next day, ''[[The New York Times]]'' ran an editorial criticizing the ad, noting that it was sponsored by [[Dresser Industries]], the firm which had manufactured one of the defective valves which contributed to the Three Mile Island accident.<ref name="broad">Broad 1992.</ref>

==Strategic Defense Initiative==
[[Image:Edward Teller and Ronald Reagan.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Teller became a major lobbying force of the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] to President [[Ronald Reagan]] in the 1980s.]]

In the 1980s, Teller began a strong campaign for what was later called the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI), derided by critics as "Star Wars," the concept of using lasers or satellites to destroy incoming [[Russia]]n [[ICBM]]s. Teller lobbied with government agencies&mdash;and got the sanction of President [[Ronald Reagan]]&mdash;for his plan to develop a system using elaborate [[satellite]]s which used atomic weapons to fire [[X-ray]] lasers at incoming missiles&mdash; as part of a broader scientific research program into defenses against nuclear weapons. However, scandal erupted when Teller (and his associate Lowell Wood) were accused of deliberately overselling the program and perhaps had encouraged the dismissal of a laboratory director (Roy Woodruff) who had attempted to correct the error.<ref name="broad"/> His 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. Many prominent scientists argued that the system was futile. Bethe, along with [[IBM]] physicist [[Richard Garwin]] and [[Cornell University]] colleague Kurt Gottfried, wrote an article in ''Scientific American'' which analyzed the system and concluded that any putative enemy could disable such a system by the use of suitable decoys. The project's funding was eventually scaled back. 

Many scientists opposed strategic defense on moral or political rather than purely technical grounds. They argued that, even if an effective system could be produced, it would undermine the system of [[Mutually Assured Destruction]] (MAD) that had prevented all-out war between the western democracies and the communist bloc. An effective defense, they contended, would make such a war "winnable" and therefore more likely.<ref name="broad"/>

Despite (or perhaps because of) his hawkish reputation, Teller made a public point of noting that he regretted the use of the first atomic bombs on civilian cities during World War II. He further claimed that before the bombing of [[Hiroshima]] he had indeed lobbied Oppenheimer to use the weapons first in a "demonstration" which could be witnessed by the [[Japanese people|Japanese]] high-command and citizenry before using them to inflict thousands of deaths. The "father of the hydrogen bomb" would use this quasi-anti-nuclear stance (he would say that he believed nuclear weapons to be unfortunate, but that the [[arms race]] was unavoidable due to the intractable nature of Communism) to promote technologies such as SDI, arguing that they were needed to make sure that nuclear weapons could never be used again (''Better a shield than a sword'' was the title of one of his books on the subject).

However, there is contradictory evidence. In the 1970s, a letter of Teller to [[Leo Szilard]] emerged, dated [[July 2]], [[1945]]:

:''"Our only hope is in getting the facts of our results before the people. This might help convince everybody the next war would be fatal. For this purpose, actual combat-use might even be the best thing."''<ref> Teller, Edward: Better a Shield than a Sword: Perspectives on Defense and Technology, The Free Press, New York, 1987 p. 57</ref>

The historian [[Barton Bernstein]] argued that it is an "unconvincing claim" by Teller that he was a "covert dissenter" to the use of the weapon.<ref> Essay Review-From the A-Bomb to Star Wars: Edward Teller's History. Better A Shield Than a Sword: Perspectives on Defense and Technology ''Technology and Culture'', Vol. 31, No. 4. (Oct., 1990), p. 848 </ref> In his 2001 ''Memoirs'', Teller claims that he did lobby Oppenheimer, but that Oppenheimer had convinced him that he should take no action and that the scientists should leave military questions in the hands of the military; Teller claims he was not aware that Oppenheimer and other scientists were being consulted as to the actual use of the weapon and implies that Oppenheimer was being hypocritical.<ref>Teller, ''Memoirs'', pp. 206–209.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Image:Edward Teller (later years).jpg|thumb|right|250px|Edward Teller in his later years]]

In his early career, Teller made contributions to [[nuclear physics|nuclear]] and [[molecular physics]], [[spectroscopy]] (the [[Jahn-Teller effect|Jahn-Teller]] and [[Renner-Teller effect|Renner-Teller]] effects), and [[surface]] physics. His extension of Fermi's theory of [[beta decay]] (in the form of the so-called [[Gamow-Teller transitions]]) provided an important stepping stone in the applications of this theory. The Jahn-Teller effect and the [[BET theory]] have retained their original formulation and are still mainstays in physics and chemistry.<ref>Goodchild 2005, p. 36</ref> Teller also made contributions to Thomas-Fermi theory, the precursor of [[density functional theory]], a standard modern tool in the quantum mechanical treatment of complex molecules. In 1953, along with [[Nicholas Metropolis]] and [[Marshall Rosenbluth]], Teller co-authored a paper which is a standard starting point for the applications of the [[Monte Carlo method]] to [[statistical mechanics]]. 

Teller's vigorous advocacy for strength through nuclear weapons, especially when so many of his wartime colleagues later expressed regret about the arms race, made him an easy target for the "[[mad scientist]]" stereotype (his accent and eyebrows certainly did not help shake the image). In 1991 he was awarded one of the first [[Ig Nobel Prize]]s for Peace in recognition of his "lifelong efforts to change the meaning of peace as we know it". He was also rumored to be the inspiration for the character of Dr. Strangelove in [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s 1964 [[satire|satirical]] film of the same name<ref name=StanfordDeath/> (other inspirations have been speculated to be [[RAND]] theorist [[Herman Kahn]], rocket scientist [[Wernher von Braun]], and [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Robert McNamara]]). In the aforementioned ''Scientific American'' interview from 1999, he was reported as having bristled at the question: "My name is not Strangelove. I don't know about Strangelove. I'm not interested in Strangelove. What else can I say?... Look. Say it three times more, and I throw you out of this office."<ref name="stix"/> 
Nobel Prize winning physicist [[Isidor I. Rabi]] once suggested that "It would have been a better world without Teller."<ref>This quote has been primarily attributed to Rabi in many news sources (see, e.g., McKie, Robin, [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/scienceandnature/0,6121,1207700,00.html Megaton megalomaniac], ''The Observer'', [[May 2]], [[2004]]), but it has also in a few reputable sources been attributed to Hans Bethe (i.e. in the [http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbmedia/notes_epilogue.doc notes to the Epilogue in Herken 2002], note 40).</ref>  In addition, Teller's false claims that Stanislaw Ulam made no significant contribution to the development of the hydrogen bomb (despite Ulam's key insights of using compression and staging elements to generate the thermonuclear reaction) and his vicious personal attacks on Oppenheimer caused even greater animosity within the general physics community towards Teller.<ref name="mcmillan"/>

Teller died in [[Stanford, California|Stanford]], [[California]] on [[September 9]] [[2003]].<ref name=StanfordDeath/> In 1986, he was awarded the [[United States Military Academy|United States Military Academy's]] [[Sylvanus Thayer Award]].<ref name=MOF>{{cite web|url=http://www.medaloffreedom.com/EdwardTeller.htm|title=Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Dr. Edward Teller|publisher=Presidential Medal of Freedom|accessdate=2007-11-28}}</ref> He was a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]], and the [[American Nuclear Society]].<ref name=LLNL>{{cite web|url=http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/history/edward_teller.html|title=About the lab:Edward Teller—A Life Dedicated to Science|publisher=Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|date=[[January 7]], [[2004]]|accessdate=2007-11-28}}</ref> Among the honors he received were the [[Albert Einstein Award]], the [[Enrico Fermi Award]], the [http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvin-l%C3%A1nc Corvin Chain] and the [[National Medal of Science]].<ref name=MOF/> He was also named as part of the group of "U.S. Scientists" who were ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's [[Person of the Year|People of the Year]] in 1960,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1960.html|title=Time Person of the year, 1960: U.S. Scientists|publisher=''Time'' magazine|date=[[January 2]], [[1961]]|accessdate=2007-11-28}}</ref> and an asteroid, 5006 Teller, is named after him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/pdf/80021main_112700Astrogram.pdf |format=PDF|title=The Ames Astrogram: Teller visits Ames|pages=p. 6|publisher=NASA|date=[[November 27]], [[2000]]|accessdate=2007-11-28}}</ref> He was awarded with the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] by President [[George W. Bush]] less than two months before his death.<ref name=StanfordDeath/>

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
Herken (2002) is the source where not otherwise indicated.

* Broad, William J. ''Teller’s War: The Top-Secret Story Behind the Star Wars Deception.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0671701061.
* Herken, Gregg. ''Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller.'' New York: Henry Holt, 2002. ISBN 0805065881. 
* O'Neill, Dan. ''The Firecracker Boys''. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. ISBN 0312110863.
* [[Richard Rhodes|Rhodes, Richard]]. ''Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. ISBN 068480400X.
* Teller, Edward, with Judith L. Shoolery. ''Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics.'' Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Publishing, 2001. ISBN 073820532X.

==Further reading==
'''Written by Teller'''
*''Our Nuclear Future; Facts, Dangers, and Opportunities'' (1958)
*''Basic Concepts of Physics'' (1960)
*''The Legacy of Hiroshima'' (1962)
*''Energy from Heaven and Earth'' (1979) 
*''The Pursuit of Simplicity'' (1980)
*''Better a Shield Than a Sword: Perspectives on Defense and Technology'' (1987)
*''Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics'' (1991)
*''Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics'' (2001)
'''Books about Teller'''
*William J. Broad, ''Teller’s war: the top-secret story behind the Star Wars deception'' (Simon & Schuster, 1992).
*Gregg Herken, ''Brotherhood of the bomb: the tangled lives and loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence'' (Henry Holt, 2002).
*Peter Goodchild, ''Edward Teller: the real Dr. Strangelove'' (Harvard University Press, 2005).
*Stanley A. Blumberg and Louis G. Panos. ''Edward Teller : giant of the golden age of physics; a biography'' (Scribner's, 1990) 
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons|Edward Teller}}
*[http://www.llnl.gov/pao/news/teller_edward/teller_edward/teller_index.html LLNL's Edward Teller page]
*[http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/history/teller.html LLNL Interview with Edward Teller]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/rhodes12.html "Edward Teller's Role in the Oppenheimer Hearings"] interview with [[Richard Rhodes]]
*[http://www.thememoryhole.org/fbi/teller_edward.htm Edward Teller's FBI file] &ndash; Outlines years of FBI agents trying to establish whether or not he was the same person as another Edward Teller who taught at a Marxist school in New York. 
*[http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/peace/video/1958v.3.html Video excerpts from a televised debate between Edward Teller and Linus Pauling, titled "Fallout and Disarmament," February 20, 1958]

{{Manhattan Project}}
{{Time Persons of the Year 1951-1975}}

{{BD|1908|2003|Teller, Edward}}

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{{Persondata
|NAME=Teller, Edward
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Teller Ede (Hungarian)
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Nuclear physicist and father of the [[hydrogen bomb]]
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[15 January]] [[1908]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
|DATE OF DEATH=[[9 September]] [[2003]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Stanford, California]]
}}
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