J. Robert Oppenheimer: From Savior to Security Risk

Stephen Doyle and Andrew Stevenson

Junior Division

Group Website

          We are eighth graders who attend Petaluma Junior High School.  After competing in the 2005 History Competition Andrew decided to investigate the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his stand in history.  Awhile later Andrew asked Stephen to join him in creating a group website.

          The first step involved research at the local public library and the Sonoma State University library. We choose Robert Oppenheimer as the topic for our project because he was a highly controversial character.  His life combines our interests in science and the history of World War II.  This gave us a chance to investigate one particular scientific invention (the atomic bomb) that was crucial to the United States victory in WWII. .It seemed that Oppenheimer changed his views about atomic warfare after the destruction witnessed at Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.  His beliefs about the use and control of nuclear weapons and knowledge led to many powerful enemies.

          We wanted to build a website because Andrew had prior experience with web design and Stephen had experience with Power Point presentations. When creating our website we wanted to use frames because we liked the way they function on the web page. We selected Microsoft FrontPage 2000.

          Andrew and his family were able to travel to the Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee and get the flavor of the vast size of the government’s wartime scientific research.  The University of California Berkeley’s website about Oppenheimer gave us ideas about our design.

          We found it difficult to contact people that had worked with Oppenheimer but we tried to contact local physicists.  We looked at some transcripts of the security hearing and letters and personal papers of Robert Oppenheimer. We were able to hear a recording of Oppenheimer speaking at the University of California in 1961 to get an idea of his attitudes at the end of his career.

          We were able to meet twice a week to work on the project and transferred data by e-mail and flash drive. This was not a school sponsored activity so our work was all done outside school hours.

          Our research helped us appreciate Oppenheimer’s multiple stands in history and how they affect us today. His beliefs included: the free exchange of scientific information, treaties to limit nuclear proliferation, and a reluctance to use large scale weapons on civilians.