Edward Teller is known as the father of the
Hydrogen Bomb. Originally born in
Hungary, he later worked under
Werner Heisenberg in
Germany, but fled to
Denmark to work under
Niels Bohr in
1934 when the
Nazis came to power. He eventualy emigrated to the
United States, worked on the
Manhattan project under
J. Robert Oppenheimer, and was one of the few researchers insisting that
the bomb should be more powerful. He produced the
calculations that
proved the
nuclear reaction would not propagate and
destroy the earth. The first bomb was much simpler and less powerful than his design, but his ideas were eventually accepted by the
US Government after the
USSR conducted their first
nuclear weapons test.
Teller always felt the scientists at Los Alamos were too ambivalent about creating fusion weapons, so he lobbied for the creation of Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California. When suspicion fell on Oppenheimer for disloyalty, his security clearance was revoked, and most of his friends blamed Teller for it, creating a rift between him and most of his former colleagues.
Also known as the possible inspiration for the movie Dr. Strangelove, Teller had a very similar German accent, and had a foot amputated by a streetcar accident.