Edward Teller (1992 Symposium)

As one of the great pioneers of modern physics, and as a strenuous advocate for America's national security, Edward Teller (1908-2003) made his mark on our times in a way that few could equal. A mathematical prodigy from Budapest, Hungary, the young Teller played a major role in the development of nuclear physics, a historic scientific breakthrough that revolutionized mankind's understanding of the universe. With Werner Heisenberg in Leipzig, Germany, he helped lay the foundation of the new science. Fleeing the rise of the Nazis, he continued his work in Denmark with Niels Bohr. His research with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago led to the first controlled nuclear reaction. On the outbreak of World War II, he and his friend Leo Szilard persuaded Albert Einstein to inform President Roosevelt of the military potential of atomic power. At Los Alamos with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Teller participated in the development of the first atomic bomb. After World War II, he led the drive to develop the hydrogen bomb. After a controversial break with Oppenheimer, he co-founded the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for thermonuclear research and long served as its Director. From 1975, Edward Teller was a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institute for the Study of War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. In later years he was a forceful advocate for a space-based missile defense system. In this podcast, recorded during the Academy of Achievement's 1992 Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dr. Teller questions conventional definitions of success and failure, and describes his own life journey in connection with the disasters of history. In addition to discussing the pros and cons of technological progress, he touches on a number of recent historic events, including the end of communism in his native Hungary, the fall of the Soviet Union and the 1991 Gulf War.