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'Father of H-Bomb,' Edward Teller Dies - 2003-09-10


Edward Teller, the man known as the "father of the H-bomb", has died in California, at the age of 95. The Hungarian-born scientist promoted a strong defense policy in his adopted homeland.

A key member of the Manhattan Project, he helped the United States develop the first atomic bomb, during the Second World War. He played an important role in U.S. defense and energy policies for half a century.

Mr. Teller championed development of the hydrogen bomb, nuclear power and the space-based Strategic Defense Initiative. He was a vocal critic of the former Soviet Union and communist governments in Eastern Europe.

Born in Budapest in 1908, Edward Teller was educated at the University of Leipzig, under the noted physicist Werner Heisenberg. After the rise of Hitler, Mr. Teller, who was Jewish, escaped from Nazi Europe to Britain and the United States, where he taught at a number of major universities. After the first successful test of the hydrogen bomb in 1952, he worked at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkeley, California.

Edward Teller died in Stanford, California, near the Hoover Institute, where he was a senior research fellow.

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