Often called the “father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer was a distinguished researcher and theoretical physicist who served as director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. As mentor and teacher for so many scientists who were inspired by his brilliance, Oppenheimer is remembered by colleagues and students as the founder of modern theoretical physics in the USA. “More than any other man,” Hans Bethe wrote, “he was responsible for raising American theoretical physics from a provincial adjunct of Europe to world leadership.”