Edward Teller

Edward Teller received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Leipzig (Germany) in 1930. In 1935 he became Professor of Physics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Active in the research that developed the atomic bomb, Teller went on to work on the more powerful hydrogen bomb, first tested in 1952. From 1954 to 1975 he held top positions at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory at the University of California. In the 1980s he was a supporter of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a protective weapons plan that was ultimately abandoned. During the 1990s Teller continued to do research and lecture, maintaining his arguments for a strong U.S. defense.