Edward Teller (1908–2003) was born in Budapest, Hungary on January 15, emigrated to the United States in 1939, and became known publicly as the "father of the hydrogen bomb." From the late 1940s until his death, he defended the U.S. development of nuclear weapons and the ethics of nuclear deterrence; as a public policy adviser he argued for the peaceful use of nuclear power and advocated national missile defense. He died in Palo Alto, California (September 9).

Education and Hydrogen Bomb Development

Teller worked with many of the early physics greats in Europe between the two world wars, distinguishing himself first in atomic and molecular physics (the Inglis-Teller and the Jahn-Teller effects), and then in nuclear physics. After serving at several universities, he eventually established permanent residence at the Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory, of which he was one of the principal founders. (Livermore was originally dedicated to military research and...