He studied with the distinguished German theoretical physicist Max Born in Gottingen and took his degree there in 1927 at the age of twenty-three. Born's recollections of Oppenheimer, which were published posthumously in 1975, were not sympathetic. Oppenheimer, he wrote, "was a man of great talent and I was conscious of his superiority in a way which was embarrassing and led to trouble. In my ordinary seminar on quantum mechanics, he used to interrupt the speaker, whoever it was, not excluding myself, and to step to the blackboard, taking the chalk and declaring: 'this can be done much better in the following manner.'" In fact, it got so bad that Oppenheimer's fellow students in the seminar petitioned Born to put a stop to it.
在哥廷根，他跟随著名的德国理论物理学家马克思·伯恩一同搞研究，并于1927年他23岁时在那里获得了博士学位。1975年伯恩去世后出版的对奥本海默的回忆录中对其毫无赞同之词。“奥本海默，”他写道，“是伟大的天才，我在一种令人尴尬并频惹麻烦的方式上意识到他多么优秀。在上我的量子力学的常规研讨课时，他经常打断发言者，不管他是谁，也包括我在内，然后跨上讲台，拿起粉笔，宣称：‘用下面的方式可以把这做得更好。’”实际上，这样做很糟糕，以至于他的同学恳求伯恩制止这样事情的再度发生。
Quantum mechanics had been invented the year before by Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg and Paul A. M. Dirac. The next year, Dirac came as a visitor to Gottingen and, as it happened, roomed in the large house of a physician named Cario where Oppenheimer also had a room. Dirac was twenty-five. The two young men became friends—insofar as one could have a friendship with Dirac. As young as he was, Dirac was already a great physicist, and I am sure he knew it. He probably just took it for granted. However, he was, and remained, an enigma. He rarely spoke, but when he did, it was always with extraordinary precision and often with devastating effect. This must have had a profound effect on Oppenheimer. While Oppenheimer was interrupting Born's seminars, announcing that he could do calculations better in the quantum theory, Dirac, only two years older, had invented the subject.
量子力学在此前一年由埃尔温·薛定谔、沃纳·海森堡和保罗·A.M·狄拉克创造。第二年，狄拉克到哥廷根做客，碰巧的是他下榻在一位名叫加里奥的物理学家的大房子里，奥本海默正好也住在那里。狄拉克当时25岁。两个年轻人成了朋友——迄今为止他是唯一能和狄拉克建立友谊的人。狄拉克如此年轻，可已经是个伟大的物理学家了，我确信他知道这一点。也许他觉得无所谓。然而，他从前，直至现在仍然是个谜。他很少说话，但一旦开口，他的话往往极为精确，而且常常具有压倒一切的威力。这一定对奥本海默产生了深远的影响。当奥本海默还在打断伯恩的讲座，声称他可以运用量子理论把计箅做得更好的时候，只比他年长两岁的狄拉克已经设置了这个课题。