About Robert Serber
Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American theoretical physicist who contributed to multiple branches of physics and who served as a bridge between theorists and experimentalists. As a key participant of the Manhattan Project, Serber gave lectures explaining the basic principles and goals of the project, which were printed and supplied to all incoming scientific staff. These became known as The Los Alamos Primer. The New York Times called him "the intellectual midwife at the birth of the atomic bomb." He has been portrayed in films and documentaries including the 2023 film Oppenheimer where he is played by Michael Angarano. == Early life and education == He was born in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest son of Rose (née Frankel), a daughter of Polish migrants, and David Serber, a Russian immigrant. He grew up in an artistically and politically active Jewish family. His mother died when he was 13 and his father married Frances Leof in shortly after. He graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia in 1926 and matriculated at Lehigh University, intending to become a mechanical engineer, like one of his uncles. After graduating in 1930, Serber turned his attention towards physics and secured a post as a teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, under the supervision of John Van Vleck, who taught him advanced courses on the then nascent modern quantum mechanics. As a graduate student, he published multiple papers, the first of which concerned the Faraday effect for molecules.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.