Before World War II, Robert Oppenheimer had been professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. The scion of a wealthy New York family, he was a graduate of See more

Board composition and procedures
On December 21, 1953, Oppenheimer was told by Lewis Strauss that his security file had been subject to two recent re-evaluations because … See more

The loss of his security clearance ended Oppenheimer's role in government and policy. Although he was not fired from his job at the See more

Most popular depictions of Oppenheimer view his security struggles as a confrontation between right-wing militarists (symbolized by Edward Teller) and left-wing intellectuals (symbolized by Oppenheimer) over the moral question of weapons of mass … See more

Oppenheimer's clearance was revoked by a 2–1 vote of the panel. Gray and Morgan voted in favor, Evans against. The board rendered its decision on May 27, 1954, in a 15,000-word letter to Nichols. It found that 20 of the 24 charges were either true or substantially … See more

Over the years, the physicist Fred Ribe, who had organized the 1954 petition, worked towards having the Oppenheimer charges undone, as did other scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Historians also pressed for revocation to be reversed, … See more

• J. Robert Oppenheimer Personnel Hearings Transcripts
• 1982 Audio Interview with Haakon Chevalier by Martin Sherwin Voices of the Manhattan Project
• Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roy Glauber and … See more