Sam Schweber discusses working with Eugene Wigner and J. Robert Oppenheimer and seminars they participated in.

Kojevnikov:

Were any of them of dominant personalities?

Schweber:

Oppenheimer.

Kojevnikov:

Was it all just run by him? How did the seminar proceed?

Schweber:

The two dominant theoretical physicists during the time that I was there and was some rivalry, and you could tell was Wigner and Oppenheimer. Okay, those were the two dominant physicists in theoretical physicists. The institute, and remember that Wigner and Oppenheimer were not together during the war, okay. One was at Los Alamos and one was in Chicago, and so there was no overlap. The first time that really interact was in Princeton in fall of '47 when Oppenheimer comes there. So when I come in '49, it's clear there is tension. Because on the one hand, Wigner is always a penologist. Wigner never rode in the quantum field theory. He stood aside from that; was not terribly interested, or if he said that he was interested, didn't partake in it. Whereas Oppenheimer was deeply enmeshed in it. Oppenheimer was certainly at the institute a dominant figure, and then almost always knew what the speaker was going to say. Often very critical of what was being said. He set the tone.

Kojevnikov:

So, how would this seminar proceed?

Schweber:

Well it would be announced, the topic. The man would get up and talk and then there could be interruptions, okay. I mean, strong interruptions.

Kojevnikov:

And who would interrupt?

Schweber:

Primarily it would start most of the time with Oppenheimer. But it was no formalities, right. It wasn't as if we were waiting till the end before you started asking. It was very intense, and always the very latest of things.