Julius Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 - February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the WWII project that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico; Oppenheimer remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". His notable achievements in physics include the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer-Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and the first prediction of quantum tunneling. He also made contributions to the modern theory of neutron stars and black holes, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and the interactions of cosmic rays. After WWII, he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. A chain smoker since early adulthood, Oppenheimer was diagnosed with throat cancer in late 1965 and, after inconclusive surgery, underwent unsuccessful radiation treatment and chemotherapy late in 1966. He fell into a coma and died in 1967 at the age of 62.