J. Robert Oppenheimer: J. Robert Oppenheimer. Self: Panorama. J. Robert Oppenheimer(April 22, 1904 - February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who was professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is among those who are credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project - the World War II undertaking that developed...