US Celebrates Oppenheimer’s Centenary

On 25 June, a two-day commemoration of the centenary of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s birth kicks off with a dedication by Senators Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) at the house in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where Oppenheimer and his family lived while he headed the Manhattan Project. The house remains essentially unchanged—it still has the same baby grand piano that Edward Teller once played. Helene and Gerry Suydam, who bought the house in 1946, will stay there as long as they wish, and it will eventually become a museum.

Oppenheimer’s is the first of many houses of prominent Manhattan Project physicists that the Los Alamos Historical Society, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Washington, DC–based Atomic Heritage Foundation are trying to preserve. Eventually, those organizations hope to turn the area—including some structures currently inside the boundaries of the LANL weapons lab—into a national park accessible to the public.

Organizers of the Oppenheimer commemoration also plan a series of talks and a tour of the Manhattan Project site. Unless security clearances are obtained in time, the tour will consist of slide-show presentations (see http://www.atomicheritage.org for event details).

Also in recognition of the centenary, the office for history of science and technology at the University of California, Berkeley, has launched a Web site that lets visitors explore the contradictions and controversies of Oppenheimer’s life (see http://ohst.berkeley.edu/oppenheimer ).

After the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. During the anticommunist witch hunts of the early 1950s, and with Teller’s testimony against him, Oppenheimer lost his security clearance and, consequently, access to Los Alamos. Perhaps the birthday present he would have most appreciated is congressional resolution 321, currently headed to the floor of the Senate. Sponsored by Senators Domenici, Bingaman, and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the resolution recognizes Oppenheimer’s outstanding contributions “to theoretical physics, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the development of nuclear energy, and the common defense and security of the United States.”