Robert J. Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his role as scientific director of the Manhattan Project and for his role in the development of the atomic bomb. He was born in New York City in 1904 and studied at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. As the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, he oversaw the secret research that developed the first nuclear weapons and helped end World War 2.