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Part of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics oral history collection, which includes tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with ca. 100 atomic and quantum physicists. Subjects discuss their family background, how they became interested in physics, their educations, people who influenced them, their careers including social influences on the conditions of research, and the state of atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics during the period in which they worked. Discussions of scientific matters relate to work that was done between approximately 1900 and 1930, with an emphasis on the discovery and itnerpretations of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. Also prominently mentioned are: Niels Henrik David Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Walther Gerlach, Erwin Madelung, Linus Pauling, Erwin Schrodinger, Karl Siegel, Arnold Sommerfeld, Albrecht Unsold, Gregor Wentzel, Wilhelm Wien; and Universitat Munchen.

Research in solid state physics from period of Sommerfeld's institutes; thesis, work in Frankfurt and Stuttgart; writing of Sommerfeld-Bethe Handbuch article. Also prominently metioned are: Patrick Maynard, Stuart Blackett, Felix Bloch, Clinton Joseph Davisson, Lester Halbert Germer, Werner Heisenberg, Irwin Madelung, Herman Francis mark, Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, Robert Wichard Pohl, Erwin Schrödinger, and Arnold Sommerfeld.

Natural radioactivity; ideas of nuclear constitution, size in 1920s; Gamow-Condon-Gurney theory of alpha decay 1928; discovery of neutron 1932; Cambridge as a center of research 1933; early theories of nuclear forces; analysis of short-range nuclear forces 1935-40; reasons for writing Rev. Mod. Phys. review articles 1935-37 and detailed review of articles' contents; beta decay and the neutrino hypothesis; application of group-theoretic methods to nuclear physics 1936-37; compound nucleus model 1936; nuclear models in general (compound nucleus, evaporation, liquid drop, direct interaction, statistical); contemporary knowledge of nuclear physics 1938-39; stellar energy production; energy limit on cyclotron; accelerators and theoreticians; nuclear physics at Los Alamos; post-war conferences; origins and development of the shell model of the nucleus; many-body theory in nuclear physics; current algebras in particle physics; origins and development of the optical model; of the collective model; autobiographical comments on political, social, scientific conditions in Germany and England in early 1930s ; nuclear studies at Cornell after the war; building the H-bomb; the Oppenheimer hearings; work as a consultant 1950-1970; involvement with PSAC 1956; views on disarmament; receipt of 1967 Nobel Prize.

Natural radioactivity; ideas of nuclear constitution, size in 1920s; Gamow-Condon-Gurney theory of alpha decay 1928; discovery of neutron 1932; Cambridge as a center of research 1933; early theories of nuclear forces; analysis of short-range nuclear forces 1935-40; reasons for writing Rev. Mod. Phys. review articles 1935-37 and detailed review of articles' contents; beta decay and the neutrino hypothesis; application of group-theoretic methods to nuclear physics 1936-37; compound nucleus model 1936; nuclear models in general (compound nucleus, evaporation, liquid drop, direct interaction, statistical); contemporary knowledge of nuclear physics 1938-39; stellar energy production; energy limit on cyclotron; accelerators and theoreticians; nuclear physics at Los Alamos; post-war conferences; origins and development of the shell model of the nucleus; many-body theory in nuclear physics; current algebras in particle physics; origins and development of the optical model; of the collective model; autobiographical comments on political, social, scientific conditions in Germany and England in early 1930s ; nuclear studies at Cornell after the war; building the H-bomb; the Oppenheimer hearings; work as a consultant 1950-1970; involvement with PSAC 1956; views on disarmament; receipt of 1967 Nobel Prize.

Natural radioactivity; ideas of nuclear constitution, size in 1920s; Gamow-Condon-Gurney theory of alpha decay 1928; discovery of neutron 1932; Cambridge as a center of research 1933; early theories of nuclear forces; analysis of short-range nuclear forces 1935-40; reasons for writing Rev. Mod. Phys. review articles 1935-37 and detailed review of articles' contents; beta decay and the neutrino hypothesis; application of group-theoretic methods to nuclear physics 1936-37; compound nucleus model 1936; nuclear models in general (compound nucleus, evaporation, liquid drop, direct interaction, statistical); contemporary knowledge of nuclear physics 1938-39; stellar energy production; energy limit on cyclotron; accelerators and theoreticians; nuclear physics at Los Alamos; post-war conferences; origins and development of the shell model of the nucleus; many-body theory in nuclear physics; current algebras in particle physics; origins and development of the optical model; of the collective model; autobiographical comments on political, social, scientific conditions in Germany and England in early 1930s ; nuclear studies at Cornell after the war; building the H-bomb; the Oppenheimer hearings; work as a consultant 1950-1970; involvement with PSAC 1956; views on disarmament; receipt of 1967 Nobel Prize.

Discusses youth, college and graduate studies at Michigan (to 1930); work with Goudsmit, NRC Fellowships at Caltech (1930-1931) and MIT (1931-1932); Lloyd Fellowship at Michigan (1932-1933); work with Sawyer (1933-1934). Influence of Michigan summer sessions. Teaching and research at Columbia (1934-1935), move to Cornell (1935-1940); work with Bethe on REVIEW articles; involvement in nuclear physics; with Baker measures shape of neutron resonance by time-of-flight method, comparison with Fermi's results. Effects of World War II on development of nuclear physics; emergence of high energy physics from earlier trends.

Brief interview focused on secrecy in the 1940s. As member of the National Academy of Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences, Breit expressed the necessity of keeping track of the fission problem through a publications committee headed by Frank B. Jewett. Comments on Manhattan Project scientists (Leo Szilard, Hans A. Bethe).

Early education and career; graduate training at Caltech, with C.C. Lauritsen’s group; collaboration at the Kellogg Lab and structure of Caltech physics department after 1939, Relationships with Oppenheimer and Lauritsen. Fowler’s and Caltech’s war work, Lauritsen’s role in setting up Office of Naval Research for federally funded post-war research.

Career at the University of Rochester, 1934-1940, 1946, with emphasis on the Rochester cyclotron. The cyclotron's funding is covered in particular detail, with the aid of documents from the E. O. Lawrence Papers (Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA). Comments on the Rochester Physics Department and its relations with other institutions, and on biophysical and medical research. Also prominently mentioned are: Hans Albrecht Bethe, Stafford Warren, H. Russell Wilkins; Bell Telephone Laboratories, National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Mytogenic Radiation, University of California at Berkeley, School of Medicine and Dentistry of University of Rochester, and Washington University.