Edward Teller

Edward Teller
Teller Ede
Teller in 1958
Born	(1908-01-15)January 15, 1908 Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died	September 9, 2003(2003-09-09) (aged 95) Stanford, California, U.S.
Citizenship	Hungary United States (March 6, 1941)
Alma mater	University of Karlsruhe (BS) University of Munich University of Leipzig (PhD)
Known for	Hydrogen bomb Teller–Ulam design Ashkin–Teller model Brunauer–Emmett–Teller theory Gamow–Teller transition Inglis–Teller equation Jahn–Teller effect Lyddane–Sachs–Teller relation Pöschl–Teller potential Renner–Teller effect Metropolis–Hastings algorithm
Spouse	Augusta Maria Harkanyi ​ ​ (m. 1934; died 2000)​
Children	2
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (2003) National Medal of Science (1982) Eringen Medal (1980) Harvey Prize (1975) Enrico Fermi Award (1962) Albert Einstein Award (1958)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics (theoretical)
Institutions	George Washington University University of Göttingen Bohr Institute University College London Manhattan Project University of Chicago Florida Institute of Technology University of California, Davis University of California, Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Hoover Institution
Thesis	Über das Wasserstoffmolekülion (1930)
Doctoral advisor	Werner Heisenberg
Doctoral students	Laszlo Tisza (1932) Charles Critchfield (1939) Marvin L. Goldberger (1948) Boris Jacobsohn (1947) Yang Chen-Ning (1949) Lincoln Wolfenstein (1949) Marshall Rosenbluth (1949) Hans-Peter Dürr (1956)
Other notable students	Jack Steinberger
Signature

Edward Teller (Hungarian: Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and chemical engineer who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" and one of the creators of the Teller–Ulam design based on Stanisław Ulam's design.

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1908, Teller emigrated to the United States in the 1930s, one of the many so-called "Martians", a group of prominent Hungarian scientist émigrés. He made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy (in particular the Jahn–Teller and Renner–Teller effects), and surface physics. His extension of Enrico Fermi's theory of beta decay, in the form of Gamow–Teller transitions, provided an important stepping stone in its application, while the Jahn–Teller effect and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) theory have retained their original formulation and are still mainstays in physics and chemistry.^[1]

Teller 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, with Nicholas Metropolis, Arianna Rosenbluth, Marshall Rosenbluth, and Augusta Teller, Teller co-authored a paper that is a standard starting point for the applications of the Monte Carlo method to statistical mechanics and the Markov chain Monte Carlo literature in Bayesian statistics.^[2] Teller was an early member of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb. He made a serious push to develop the first fusion-based weapons, but ultimately fusion bombs only appeared after World War II. He co-founded the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was its director or associate director. After his controversial negative testimony in the Oppenheimer security clearance hearing of his former Los Alamos Laboratory superior, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific community ostracized Teller.

Teller 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 advocated controversial technological solutions to military and civilian problems, including a plan to excavate an artificial harbor in Alaska using a thermonuclear explosive in what was called Project Chariot, and Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Teller was a recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award and the Albert Einstein Award. He died on September 9, 2003, in Stanford, California, at 95.