The NSRC’s Summer of Oppenheimer

Renewed public interest in Oppenheimer’s life, spurred by Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning biopic Oppenheimer (released in July 2023), ensured that the events of the NSRC’s “summer of Oppenheimer” found a wide and captivated audience.

The documentary

Oppenheimer: Science, Mission, Legacy connects J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project to the Lab’s mission today. “As those who live and work within the legacy J. Robert Oppenheimer left behind, we are best able to tell his story from when he first took the reins of the Laboratory to today,” said filmmaker Dave Tietmeyer, who led the yearlong creation of the documentary. “His legacy continues and this documentary connects his achievements to the Lab’s continued success.”

Created by the NSRC and the Lab’s Multimedia Production group, the three-episode film includes interviews with experts and features Oppenheimer-related material from the NSRC’s unclassified collections, much of which has never been shared publicly.

“The renewed interest in Oppenheimer has been an incredible opportunity for us to share information through the creation of this documentary,” said Brye Steeves, NSRC director. “And the enduring nature of film ensures his story—and the Lab’s—will live on well into the future.”

Alan Carr, the Lab’s senior historian, provides narration throughout the film, and audiences will recognize many of the interviewees, including Lab Director Thom Mason; former Deputy Lab Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering John Sarrao; Associate Lab Director for Weapons Physics Charlie Nakhleh; and Deputy Lab Director for Weapons Bob Webster. Also interviewed are Oppenheimer biographer Kai Bird, coauthor of American Prometheus; Lab historians Ellen McGehee and Roger Meade; and James Kunetka, author of The General and the Genius.

After the original premiere in July, an August visit from Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm for a shortened screening and lively panel discussion led to a revised version of the documentary, featuring comments from the secretary and an interview with panelist Charles Oppenheimer, grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The summer of Oppenheimer was capped off by the release of the final version of Oppenheimer: Science, Mission, Legacy in September.

Panel discussion: Oppenheimer's legacy at Los alamos

June 2023 featured an unclassified panel discussion for Lab personnel on Oppenheimer’s legacy at Los Alamos, with Laboratory Director Thom Mason, Oppenheimer biographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Kai Bird, Lab physicist and vice chair of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee Anna Llobet, and former Senate staff member Tim Rieser, who was instrumental in the December 2022 vacating of the Atomic Energy Commission’s 1954 decision to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance.

The conversation among the four panelists and the subsequent Q&A with audience members provide a unique, collective reflection on Oppenheimer’s life and continued relevance. As Llobet remarked, the Lab’s first director guides its mission even today: “After Oppenheimer went through the treadmill of the Manhattan Project, he was very adamant that we need to make science . . . more available.”

“Oppenheimer was a complicated man whose work and life had a lasting impact,” added Lab senior historian Alan Carr, who moderated the panel. “This panel was a singular opportunity to engage with new assessments of his role in history and his continued relevance to us and our world.”

Bird left the audience with an important message about what Oppenheimer’s personal story and history represent: “His life tells a really important story of us, Americans, at the beginning of the Atomic Age.”

The NSRC’s partnership exhibit with The Bradbury Science Museum

Throughout the summer of 2023, Lab personnel, members of their families, and the Los Alamos community enjoyed a special exhibit of unique artifacts related to first Lab director J. Robert Oppenheimer. The exhibit, which showcased items from both the National Security Research Center’s collections and the Bradbury Science Museum, also highlighted the NSRC’s and Bradbury’s shared commitment to preservation and historical outreach.

The NSRC contributed rare, original documents from World War II, including memos, letters, and other materials relating to the wartime Lab’s organizational structure and its technical work.

Also on display were Oppenheimer’s handwritten planning notes for the laboratory, patents, and more from the NSRC collections, plus Oppenheimer’s office chair—one of two of the director’s personal items still at the Lab. The other, belonging to the Bradbury, is his copy of the Hindu religious text The Bhagavad-Gita. A calling card belonging to Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty, was found tucked inside the pages with a lucky four-leaf clover taped to it.

From April to June 2023, the exhibit was showcased in the lobby of the Lab’s National Security Sciences Building, accessible to cleared Lab personnel. From July to October 2023, the exhibit was on display at the Bradbury, which is open to the public and features many additional artifacts to browse, including a portrait and bust of Oppenheimer that were added to the display.

“By bringing together our collections, the NSRC-Bradbury partnership really took this exhibit to a much higher level of value and interest,” said Bradbury Museum Collections Specialist Wendy Strohmeyer. “We were excited to welcome the exhibit to our galleries, where it became accessible to the wider community the Bradbury serves.”

Documentary screening with the Los Alamos Historical Society

In July 2023, the NSRC and the Los Alamos Historical Society partnered to host the public premiere of the NSRC’s three-part documentary Oppenheimer: Science, Mission, Legacy in the Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School. Speakers at the premiere were (pictured below, from left to right) Lab historian Ellen McGehee, NSRC Director Brye Steeves, Lab filmmaker and primary producer Dave Tietmeyer, and Los Alamos Historical Society Board President Cherie Trottier (not pictured).

The documentary features photographs, documents, and footage from the NSRC’s unclassified legacy collections, along with interviews with today’s Lab staff and Oppenheimer experts. “We wanted to give viewers a new perspective that connects Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project mission to LANL’s mission today,” said Tietmeyer. “As a historian,” added McGehee, “I fully appreciate the importance of the NSRC’s collections to the telling of the complex history of the Laboratory’s role during the Manhattan Project.”

Working with the Los Alamos Historical Society, whose mission is to preserve for a wide audience the history and stories of Los Alamos and its people, underscores the important relationship between the Laboratory and its surrounding community, Steeves said.

First visit from U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm

In August 2023, Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made her first in-person visit to Los Alamos to watch an abbreviated version of the NSRC’s documentary Oppenheimer: Science, Mission, Legacy and participate in the summer’s second Oppenheimer panel discussion. Participants were Lab Director Thom Mason, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Jill Hruby, and Oppenheimer’s grandson Charles Oppenheimer. Lab senior historian Alan Carr served as the moderator.

Granholm’s discussion centered in part on the injustice of the Atomic Energy Commission’s 1954 decision to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance. “The due process component of this hearing . . . it was such a railroad,” she said. Her December 2022 decision to vacate the AEC ruling overturned a purposeful misinterpretation. “It was clearly a decision that was made . . . to find the outcome they wanted as opposed to having it be the truth.” And “truth prevails” was the striking message Granholm delivered to the roughly 600 Los Alamos employees who filled the National Security Sciences Building auditorium for the screening and panel: “We want scientists to know we want them to openly question and openly speak up and that we have their backs.”

Audience members and panelists were naturally curious to know what Charles Oppenheimer thought about Granholm’s decision regarding his grandfather’s clearance. When asked, he didn’t mince words. “It’s simple—I felt happy,” he said. “My dad [Peter Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer’s son] this morning said he felt grateful for your decision, Secretary Granholm, and the courage it took. Robert Oppenheimer didn’t complain, and it wasn’t something that we in the family demanded an apology for. But being given one—to forgive—is divine.”

Charles Oppenheimer visits the lab his grandfather built

In August 2023, Charles Oppenheimer visited the Lab to participate in a number of activities honoring his late grandfather, from a panel discussion with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to an exhibit displaying Oppenheimer artifacts at the Lab’s Bradbury Science Museum.

Today, Charles, who lives in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters, works on behalf of the Oppenheimer Project, an organization he co-founded that is centered on international cooperation regarding scientific and technological growth. Although J. Robert Oppenheimer died in 1967, before Charles was born, his values help inform his grandson’s work.

“If there’s a way to promote his values in improving the world, I think he would approve...”

“Realizing how important my grandfather was in the world, I’ve come to terms with [the fact that] if Oppenheimer’s name can help improve the world amid the threat of nuclear war, then you should participate,” he said during the interview. “If there’s a way to promote his values in improving the world, I think he would approve of that.”

Indeed, Charles often speaks on behalf of the Oppenheimer family, offering a perspective that many authors, filmmakers, and interviewers don’t think to ask for. “The thing that stands out most is the family culture of being supportive of Robert Oppenheimer. It’s something I experienced as family culture . . . he had these really wide interests and was able to pursue them to his heart’s content,” Charles said.

While outside the Oppenheimer House on Bathtub Row, Charles was approached by Beckett Potter, a 12-year-old visiting Los Alamos from Dallas, Texas, with his family. Beckett told Charles about his love for science and asked Charles for his autograph.

This serendipitous meeting seemed to echo what Charles said in his interview regarding science, cooperation, and hope. “The world is in a situation today where we have existential risks that everybody in the world is participating in. . . . What Robert Oppenheimer’s message was, was that we need to work together on those problems. . . . That’s the most hopeful part of it.” Beckett and his generation’s interest in science reflect that hopeful future.

Robert Oppenheimer’s message was that we need to work together.

Growing up Oppenheimer

During his interview, Charles Oppenheimer shared what it was like to grow up in the Oppenheimer family and the impact of his grandfather’s legacy on his life.