Ernest Lawrence

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly. It is May 15, 2018, and I’m on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. I have with me Phillip Broughton. My first question for him is to say his name correctly and spell it. Phillip Broughton: My name is Phillip Broughton, it’s P-h-i-l-l-i-p B-r-o-u-g-h-t-o-n. I am a […]

Bill Wilcox: My name is Bill Wilcox. William J. Wilcox, Jr. Cindy Kelly: And how do you spell Wilcox? Wilcox: W-I-L-C-O-X. Kelly: Why was Oak Ridge chosen for the Manhattan Project? Wilcox: It was one of the first actions of the new Manhattan Project, under Colonel [James] Marshall in the early summer of 1942. They started […]

Martin Sherwin: In terms of the people who were invited in, I know [George] Kennan. John Manley: That was for the Halloween meeting. Sherwin: Yes. Do you remember anything about what Kennan said? What the impression he left was? Manley: Let me try to be specific. I think I could give you some idea of […]

[For Edwin McMillan’s lecture, which preceded Elsie’s, please click here.] Elsie McMillan: You know, I will tell you a secret. This is the very first time I have shared a platform, let alone shared it with my best beau and a Nobel Prize winner [Edwin McMillan]. I think my greatest difficulty this afternoon is going […]

Edwin McMillan: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start with two remarks. First, this is going to be a personal story, so if I use the first person singular, this is not pure egotism, it is simply the fact that that’s the part that I know best. Second remark is, the difficulty of establishing […]

Harold Cherniss: Well, you see, I was married on January 1, 1929, in White Plains. When we went back to Berkeley, it was immediately after that that I met  [J. Robert] Oppenheimer. This is the time in which he had come to Berkeley the autumn before, just about this time. Taught one term in Berkeley, […]

Owen Gingerich: This is an interview between Owen Gingerich and Robert Wilson. You use your middle initial. It’s Robert R.? Robert Wilson: Yes, usually. Gingerich: Robert R. Wilson, who is a builder of high energy accelerators and who was one of the physicists at Los Alamos. We are speaking today in Philadelphia, where we both happen […]

Cindy Kelly: Okay, I am Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation. It’s August 9, 2016 and we are in Berkeley, California. I have with me Esther Floth. Our first question I want to ask is for her to tell us your name and to spell it. Esther Floth: My name is Esther Marie Green Floth. It’s […]

Donald Ross: My name is Donald Ross, and I am about to begin my eightieth year on this planet. I was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I left there with my parents at an early age. We moved to the southern tip of Texas, and had a little farm not too far from Edinburg, Texas, […]

Ted Rockwell: It’s Theodore Rockwell, R – O – C – K – W – E – L – L. And what do you want to know? Cindy Kelly: Okay. Tell us about how you happened to go to the Manhattan Project? Rockwell: Well, they were interviewing at school. I came along interviewing for a […]