Although the so-called father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-67) didn’t assume directorship of the Institute for Advanced Study until 1947, he visited several times during the war. He was a close friend of John von Neumann (1903-57), a permanent faculty member. The two had met in while they were both visiting scholars at Göttingen working on quantum mechanics. In the photograph above, the two are standing in the basement of Fuld Hall in front of the so-called IAS machine, which employs the von Neumann architecture.

You can read more about the Electronic Computer Project at the Institute for Advanced Study here.

Related Privatdozent newsletters:

• Oppenheimer’s Letter of Recommendation for Richard Feynman (1943), May 22nd 2021

• The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann, May 19th 2021

• When Feynman met Dirac, April 5th 2021

• The Eccentricities of J. Robert Oppenheimer, May 19th 2021

• The Golden Age of Quantum Physics, Sep 3rd 2021

This is Photo Edition — a shorter, more frequent newsletter for subscribers of Privatdozent.