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Recollections
of Oppenheimer and Schwinger
Colloquium
Edward Gerjuoy, University
of Pittsburgh
The
career
of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was born on April 22, 1904, was
celebrated in a
June, 2004 Los Alamos Symposium, wherein I recalled my experiences as a
Ph.D.
student of Oppenheimer's in Berkeley, California during the period
August 1938
to January 1942. I shall recount
some of these recollections, concentrating on conveying a portrait of
Oppenheimer as creator and inspiration of probably the most important
pre-war
United States school of theoretical physics. During
a portion of this period (the 1940 academic year)
Julian Schwinger, who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for the development
of the
modern formulation of quantum electrodynamics and deservedly has been
termed a
genius, was employed as what today would be termed Oppenheimer's post
doc. Therefore, especially because
Schwinger
now seems almost forgotten although he died only fifteen years ago (on
July 16,
1994), I also will recall some of Schwinger's interactions with
Oppenheimer and
Oppenheimer's students including myself, in an attempt to convey some
comprehension of Schwinger's astonishing theoretical physics talents.
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