News Archive

April 4, 2024 Newsletter The movie “Oppenheimer” won seven Academy Awards, creating a “Big Bang” in the media. On March 10, the BBC’s Dan Snow produced a History Hits podcast on “Oppenheimer vs Einstein,“ interviewing the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s Cindy Kelly. Japan’s NHK produced a documentary about Edgar Sengier, “Mystery Man of the A-Bomb.“ In March, “A Compassionate Spy” featured Theodore A. […]

February 3, 2023 Newsletter This issue highlights the exoneration of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. In December, the Secretary vacated the Atomic Energy Commission’s 1954 decision to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance. In recognition of Black History Month in February, the issue notes the challenges and contributions of Black people who worked […]

July 16, 2021 Seventy-six years ago on Monday, July 16, 1945, the efforts of the Manhattan Project dramatically came to fruition. The world’s first nuclear device, the “Gadget,” was successfully detonated in the New Mexico desert. With the “light of a thousand suns,” the nuclear era began. This issue will explore the unknown risks posed by […]

April 30, 2021 Newsletter The 23rd National Award of Nuclear Science & History was presented at the virtual Einstein Gala on March 20, 2021. I was honored to the be this year’s recipient. If you missed the Gala, here is a link to the show. Jim Walther, director of the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, […]

On August 3, 2020, Helene Suydam died peacefully in her sleep at age 100. John Ruminer, member of the Board of Directors of the Los Alamos Historical Society, described Helene as “an iconic member of our community.  Her sixty-plus years on Bathtub Row touched the lives of many of our best-known historical families.  She had […]

On the evening of April 12, 2019, esteemed physicist Dr. Geoffrey Chew passed away at the age of 94. Chew was born in Washington, D.C. in 1924. After receiving his B.S. in Physics from George Washington University in 1944, he was recommended by one of his professors to join Edward Teller’s team on the Manhattan […]

AHF joins Oak Ridgers and Manhattan Project families in mourning the loss of our friend James Edward “Ed” Westcott, the official photographer for the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Ed died on March 29, 2019 in his home in Oak Ridge at the age of 97. As Cindy Kelly, AHF President, commented, “Ed Westcott’s […]

On February 28, 2019, Manhattan Project veteran Esther Green Floth passed away in Dublin, California at 96 years old. As a young woman, Floth was a secretary for General Leslie Groves in Washington, D.C. Floth was born in Watkins Glen, New York on June 9, 1922. She spent her childhood helping her parents at their […]

Manhattan Project veteran Roy Glauber passed away on December 26, 2018 at the age of 93. Glauber, recruited to join the project when he was 18 years old, was one of the youngest scientists at Los Alamos during World War II. Glauber was born in New York City on September 1, 1925. Because his father […]

On Friday, November 9, 2018, Fay L. Cunningham passed away in Littleton, Colorado at the age of 96. Cunningham worked on the Manhattan Project at MIT and went on to become a chemical engineer for the Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Cunningham was born July 26, 1922 in Lansing, Michigan. After graduating high school in […]