Prof. Shalom Schweber,

"J. Robert Oppenheimer: Proteus Unbound.”

During the 1930s Oppenheimer was responsible for creating an outstanding school of theoretical physics at the University of California in Berkeley. During World War II he was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that developed the American atomic bombs. Their use brought an end to the war in the Pacific. From 1945 until 1954 he was one of the most influential advisor to the US government on matters relating to atomic energy and nuclear weapons. From 1947 until his death he was the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. My lecture will highlight three crises in Oppenheimer’s life in an attempt to understand better his accomplishments in each of these roles. The first relates to why he chose becoming a theoretical physicist, the second to why he gave up being a physicist. The third involves the revocation of his clearance in 1954 and his subsequent activities as director of the Institute for Advanced Study.