Julius Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was often referred to as the father of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer decided that for security, they needed a centralized, secret research laboratory in a remote location. Scouting for a site in late 1942, Oppenheimer was drawn to New Mexico. However, After seeing the bomb's devastation, Oppenheimer argued against its further development, and resigned from his post that same year.
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Albert Einstein
Einstein played a crucial role in the making of the atomic bomb. In August 1939, Einstein wrote to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to warn him that the Nazis were working on a new and powerful weapon which was an atomic bomb. Although he never worked directly on it, Einstein is often incorrectly associated with the advent of nuclear weapons. His famous equation E=mc^2 explains the energy released in an atomic bomb but doesn't explain how to build one.
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Leslie Richard GrovesLeslie R. Groves was put in charge of the Manhattan Project. In under three years, Groves led the project through basic research, bomb design, production of fissile material, testing and deployment of the world's first atomic bomb. He was given extraordinary power to achieve his objectives. As one of his assistants said, "General Groves planned the project, ran his own construction, his own science, his own army, his own State Department and his own Treasury Department." Grove's role is usually not emphasized, but in fact it was his efficient schedule that made the two bombs available in early August, 1945.
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Other notable scientists include David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wgner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Neils Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller.