 Christy could have graduated in 1940 , but could not then be a teaching assistant , and this would have left him jobless and without income . In 1941 , Oppenheimer found him a post at the physics department at Illinois Institute of Technology ( IIT ) . In May 1941 , he married Dagmar von Lieven . They had two sons : Thomas Edward ( Ted ) , born in 1944 , and Peter Robert , born in 1946 . IIT paid Christy $ 200 per month to teach 27 hours per week for 11 months per annum . To keep abreast of developments in physics , he attended seminars at the University of Chicago . This brought him to the attention of Eugene Wigner , who hired him for the same money that IIT was paying him as a full @-@ time research assistant , commencing in January 1942 . 
