PHYSICIST, visionary, patriot, cofounder of Lawrence Livermore, adviser to presidents, educator, musician, friend, colleague, husband, and father, Edward Teller deeply influenced the 20th century both in the scientific and policy arenas. Teller died September 9, 2003, at the age of 95. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, prompting the celebration and reflection of one of the giants of the Golden Age of Physics who was an inspiration for countless researchers.
“Teller was always pondering new ideas and approaches,” says Livermore physicist Stephen Libby. “Many of his ideas changed science—and the world.” Teller helped invent the weapons that played key roles in ending the Second World War and the Cold War. He was often far ahead of his time, for example, in his advocacy as early as the 1940s for advanced safeguards for nuclear power and in his innovative ideas on how to defend the Western world.
Teller was influential with presidents and members of Congress on issues of national security as well as science research and policy. Speaking at Teller’s memorial service in 2003 at Lawrence Livermore, former Secretary of State George Shultz, a colleague of Teller’s at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, spoke of Teller’s influence in advising President Ronald Reagan and strengthening the president’s resolve in negotiations that helped end the Cold War.
At the 1986 U.S.–Soviet summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, during intense negotiations with President Reagan, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev insisted that the U.S. drop its research in strategic defense. President Reagan hung tough, thanks in part to Teller’s unflinching support of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which Teller helped to conceive. “Teller’s role was crucial in impressing the Soviets of its potential reality,” said Secretary Shultz. “That was a substantial contribution to the end of the Cold War.” Also attending the Livermore service was Hungarian Ambassador András Simonyi who simply stated, “We owe him our freedom.”
According to Livermore physicist Lowell Wood, Teller was a “mind warrior” because he fought the Cold War with his brain and not his body. “He persuaded a lot of people to do likewise,” says Wood, who worked closely with Teller at the Laboratory. Another measure of Teller’s influence can be seen in the indirect effect his ideas had on Soviet military and political leaders. In an effort to accelerate the pace of research and development of thermonuclear weapons, Teller campaigned for the establishment of a second U.S. nuclear design laboratory. Former Soviet officials acknowledged that the creation of Livermore to augment the efforts at Los Alamos convinced them that the Soviet Union also needed a second nuclear design laboratory. That laboratory was created five years after Livermore opened.
Teller believed that strengthening national security was a personal obligation. Former Livermore physicist Edward Turano, now associate director of technology for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, says, “Teller was obsessed with finding favorable solutions for the advancement of humanity. He pondered how we could create and inspire new science and technology that could be used for good, while stressing the need for international coalitions. Teller and I would discuss how the proliferation of nuclear materials and technology was inevitable. He wanted to counter this threat by encouraging international safeguards and working toward worldwide collaborative concepts such as a global missile defense shield.”
Complete Understanding of Physics
Teller’s approach to thinking through problems from fundamental principles went beyond basic science into the applied arena. “He was so much more than a theoretical physicist,” says Laboratory Director Emeritus John Nuckolls. “A lot of people came to his office to think through their ideas with him. During a discussion, they would think they had come up with a convincing argument for their position, but the next morning, he would show up with a retort.” Says Wood, “Edward could be ferocious on ma