J. Robert Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was an American theoretical physicist who was a manager in the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He was a bright student and popular teacher, but never made significant contributions to the field of physics and was repeatedly passed over in the awarding of Nobel Prizes.

Oppenheimer's main scientific contribution was to propose the existence of black holes based on the theory of relativity, which later became popular in science magazines intended for the general public. The concept of a black hole is not falsifiable, and important requirement of any scientific hypothesis as established by Karl Popper.

Oppenheimer was politically liberal and became important historically because he opposed development of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, and a congressional investigation into whether he was a communist sympathizer resulted in the revocation of his security clearance. This infuriated liberals who then never forgave conservative scientists like Edward Teller for having testified against Oppenheimer.