Weisskopf, Victor Frederick, 1908-2002
Victor Weisskopf lecture, My Life as a Physicist, [videorecording], 1977 January 13.
In this lecture, held at MIT on January 13, 1977, Victor Weisskopf discusses his experiences as a physicist. Subjects include: Wolfgang Paulis character and the Pauli effect; Weisskopfs early career path and his struggle as a Jewish German citizen; Efforts of scientists like Leo Szilard and Max von Laue to find jobs and help Jewish scientists; Nuclear fission and how it came to accepted and explored by scientists in the US; Secrecy surrounding the Los Alamos Mission; Development of Los Alamos Lab site and quality of life there; Studying plutonium; His experiences before, during, and after The Trinity Test; Health concerns after visiting the Trinity Test site; Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the end of his talk, Weisskopf presents a slideshow about CERN and takes questions from the audience.
Victor F. Weisskopf, Ph.D., University of Gottingen, Germany, 1931, was professor of Physics at MIT from 1946 until his retirement in 1974. He was director general of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961 to 1965. Weisskopf's research focus was theoretical work in quantum electrodynamics and nuclear particle physics. Other major affiliations include: University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA, 1937-1943; Los Alamos, NM, USA, 1943-1947.
Laue, Max von, 1879-1960
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
Pauli, Wolfgang, 1900-1958
Szilard, Leo
Weisskopf, Victor Frederick, 1908-2002
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Antisemitism
Nuclear fission
Nuclear weapons
Plutonium
Trinity Test.
World War, 1939-1945
Video recordings.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA