J. Robert Oppenheimer is universally recognized as the father of the atomic bomb. [1] As scientific director of Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, he led the Manhattan Project, the secret research program that designed and built the first nuclear weapons. [2] Under his leadership, the project culminated in the Trinity test on July 16, 1945, the world's first nuclear device detonation. [3] Oppenheimer managed a diverse team of physicists and engineers who solved complex theoretical and practical challenges of nuclear fission for military use. [4] While other scientists made important contributions—including Leo Szilard and Edward Teller in conceptual work, and Enrico Fermi in achieving the first controlled chain reaction—Oppenheimer's role as project director and technical leader earned him the primary historical attribution. [1] Later in life, he became an advocate for international nuclear control and expressed moral concerns about the arms race. [4]