Edward Teller

Hungarian-American Jewish nuclear physicist (1908–2003)

  • Fame62.8
  • Momentum0.6
  • Scientists rank#231
Source-basedFalling
  • Fame62.8
  • Momentum0.6
  • Scientists rank#231
  • Wikipedia72.2K
Lived 1908–2003, aged 95
ScientistsScientist
  • Wikipedia
    72 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1908–2003
    Aged 95
  • Known for
    To End All War: Oppenh…
    2023
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

The physicist who fathered the hydrogen bomb and then spent decades pushing every nuclear solution he could imagine — harbors blasted by thermonuclear charge, space-based missile shields — while most of his peers turned away after he testified against Oppenheimer.

Biography

About

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1908, Teller arrived in the U.S. in the 1930s among the wave of Hungarian émigrés known as "the Martians." His early work yielded tools still in use: Gamow–Teller transitions in beta decay, the Jahn–Teller effect, BET theory in surface physics, contributions to what became density functional theory and Monte Carlo methods in statistical mechanics. He joined the Manhattan Project but kept pushing for fusion weapons even as the war ended. In 1953 he co-founded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to pursue the hydrogen bomb, which bore his and Ulam's design. That sam…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Edward Teller

Edward Teller
said
A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe.
Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics (1991) by Edward Teller, Wendy Teller and Wilson Talley, Ch. 5, p. 69 footnote
Edward Teller
said
Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.
Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics (1991) by Edward Teller, Wendy Teller and Wilson Talley, Ch. 9, p. 135 footnote
Edward Teller
said
There's no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool.
As quoted in "Nuclear Reactions", by Joel Davis in Omni (May 1988)
Edward Teller
said
By having simplified what is known, physicists have been led into realms which as yet are anything but simple.
The Pursuit of Simplicity (1981), p. 72
Edward Teller
said
The preservation of peace and the improvement of the lot of all people require us to have faith in the rationality of humans.
The Pursuit of Simplicity (1981), p. 151
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Falling
62.8
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum0.6
Historical26.6
Now attention3.9
Source confidence65.0
Completeness65.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
#231
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence