An American Faust: Patty Limerick Interviews J. Robert Oppenheimer

July 16th, 2008
7:00PM, Ricketson Auditorium
Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Patty Limerick, PhD, award-winning historian and chair, Center of the American West, University of Colorado, and Clay S. Jenkinson, award-winning humanities scholar and author as J. Robert Oppenheimer

The first atomic device was detonated more than 60 years ago, but the aftershocks can still be felt today. During this special evening, "J. Robert Oppenheimer" recalled those days during a thoughtful, engaging dialogue with Limerick. Oppenheimer's reactions to the atomic test captured the complexity of an individual man and the challenging relationship between science, discovery, and ethics. As a scientist, he was satisfied with the experiment's successful result. But his reaction was also deeper, more interesting, and morally informed as the Hindu words "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds" burst into his consciousness. Together Oppenheimer and Limerick explored the ethics and science, indeed the price of progress.

Co-sponsored by Colorado Humanities.