Manhattan Project Scientists & Leaders

This .pdf is courtesy of the California Digital Library.

This .pdf is courtesy of the California Digital Library.

To the Secretary of War August 17, 1945 Dear Mr. Secretary: The Interim Committee has asked us to report in some detail on the scope and program of future work in the field of atomic energy. One important phase of this work is the development of weapons; and since this is the problem which has […]

Refugees who were involved with the Manhattan Project: Hans Bethe Rose Bethe Felix Bloch S. H. Bohine Niels Bohr Hans Courant Albert Einstein Enrico Fermi Giulio Fermi Laura Fermi Nella Fermi Warner James Franck Gerhart Friedlander Otto Frisch Klaus Fuchs Samuel Goudsmit Hans Halban Lilli Hornig Lew Kowarski Rolf Landshoff Irene LaViolette Peter Lax Rudolf […]

9 July, 1945 To:  J. R. Oppenheimer From: N. F. Ramsey Subject: Dangers from Accidental Detonations of Active Gadgets                 1. The seriousness of accidental detonations of active gadgets has been discussed at some length by the Weapons Committee. Consistent with the tight time schedules and newness of our device every effort has been made […]

From “The Man Who Made Manhattan” by Robert De Vore In the days when he was building Army camps, Groves insisted upon quick decisions. It was a standing rule that all questions on the sites had to be answered in twenty-four hours or an explanation given. In Manhattan, Groves cut the time for decisions down […]

From Now It Can Be Told by Leslie R. Groves It is essential for the reader to keep in mind the truly pioneering nature of the plutonium development as well as the short time available for research, to appreciate the gigantic steps taken by both scientists and engineers in moving as rapidly as they did from […]

From Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age by James G. Hershberg By 1942, Conant’s incentive for clamping down on any potential security lapse, whether by garrulous relatives or scientists lacking a “need to know,” had steeply risen due to his belief that only a Nazi A-bomb could alter the war’s outcome. Roosevelt, […]

From Oppenheimer as a Teacher of Physics and Ph.D. Advisor by Edward Gerjuoy I was enrolled as a graduate student in the Berkeley physics department from August 1938 to January 1942. Actually when I arrived in Berkeley I knew practically nothing about Oppenheimer beyond his name, even though I had come to Berkeley intending to […]

Prof Takes Girl for Ride; Walks Home J. Robert Oppenheimer, 30, associate professor of physics at the University of California, took Miss Melva [sic] Phillips, research assistant in physics living at 2730 Webster Street, for an automobile ride in the Berkeley Hills at 3 o’clock this morning. He stopped his machine on Spruce Street at […]