Oral history interview with Norris Edwin Bradbury, 1976 February 11.

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Oral history interview with Norris Edwin Bradbury, 1976 February 11.

Undergraduate studies in Chemistry, Pomona College (Francis Blacet), 1926-1929; graduate studies at University of California at Berkeley; Ph. D., 1932; comments on faculty and fellow students (Leonard Loeb, Ernest Lawrence). National Research Council Fellow at MIT working on electron attachment, 1932. Comparison of Berkeley and MIT research facilities and faculty: John Slater, Victor Lenzen. Stanford University assistant professor, 1934; Felix Bloch, William Hansen. Built a cyclotron with Bloch; comments on work and relation with Bloch. Electron capture, 1935, and cross-sections of neutrons in cobalt (Enrico Fermi), 1937. Bill Hansen's Rhumbatron; klystron research in full progress by 1937. Contacts between Physics & Electrical Engineering departments. Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground as assistant experimental officer (William S. Parsons) doing ballistic research, 1941. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL), 1944, working under George Kistiakowsky on implosion. Comments on work atmosphere, scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer's leadership. Implications of the Trinity test; Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Became Oppenheimer's successor as director to LASL, 1945. Postwar purpose of LASL, reorganization (Leslie Groves); contract negotiations with University of California (R. Underhill). Comments on the establishment of Livermore Laboratory (Edward Teller, Lawrence, Herbert York), Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories. Relations with. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). H-Bomb development, Edward Teller and Stanley Ulam. Broadening the base of activities, 1954. Budget cuts force firing of 300-400 people in the mid-1960s. Benefits of being a university lab. On patents (Emilio Segrè, Glenn Seaborg, Teller); Sandia Laboratory. Various laboratory contracts and projects.

1 session.Transcript: 118 p.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8212112

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