Frank Friedman Oppenheimer (August 14, 1912 – February 3, 1985) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, was a target of McCarthyism, and was later the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. He was the younger brother of Robert Oppenheimer, the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. August 14 is the 226th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (227th in leap years), with 139 days remaining. ... 1912 is a leap year starting on Monday. ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ... McCarthyism, named for Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, was a period of intense anti-communism in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively engaged in countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. ... The Exploratorium is a public science museum located in the Marina District at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, served as the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning in 1943. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ...

Growing up eight years Robert's junior, Frank was constantly in the shadow of his brilliant brother. At one point considering to be professional flutist, Frank eventually followed his brother's encouragements and became a physicist as well. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 1933, he studied for a year and a half at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. In 1935, he worked on the development of nuclear particle counters at the Institute di Arcetri in Florence, Italy. A flutist demonstrates flute-playing technique A flutist or flautist is a musician who plays the flute. ... The Johns Hopkins University is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Cavendish Laboratory is Cambridge Universitys Department of Physics, and is part of the universitys School of Physical Sciences. ... This article is about Cambridge, England; see also other places called Cambridge. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The word nuclear means of or belonging to the nucleus of something. ... Florence (Italian, Firenze) is a city in the center of Tuscany, in central Italy, on the Arno River, with a population of around 400,000, plus a suburban population in excess of 200,000. ...

While completing his Ph.D. work at the California Institute of Technology, Oppenheimer became engaged to Jaquenette Quann, an economics student at the University of California, Berkeley who was active in the Youth Communist League. Robert recommended against it, but despite this in 1936 Frank and Jackie were married, and soon had both joined the American Communist Party — also against Robert's recommendations. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... U.S. Economic Calendar Economics at the Open Directory Project Economics textbooks on Wikibooks The Economists Economics A-Z Institutions and organizations Bureau of Labor Statistics - from the American Labor Department Center for Economic and Policy Research (USA) National Bureau of Economic Research (USA) - Economics material from the organization... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, University of California, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated in Berkeley, California, USA to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ...

During World War II, Robert became scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to produce the first atomic weapons. From 1941 to 1945 Frank worked at the University of California Radiation Laboratory on the problem of uranium isotope separation under the direction of his brother's good friend, Ernest O. Lawrence. In 1945 he was sent to the enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee to help monitor the equipment, and then later in the year arrived at the secret Los Alamos laboratory which his brother was running. There he assisted in supervising security at the first weapons test at the Trinity site. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was by far the bloodiest, most expensive, and most significant war in... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Berkeley Lab is perched on a hill overlooking the Berkeley central campus and San Francisco Bay. ... General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block ?, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic Atomic mass 238. ... Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number–-the number of protons in the nucleus--but different atomic masses because the contain different numbers of neutrons. ... Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 - August 27, 1958) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known for his invention of the cyclotron. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Oak Ridge is a city located in Anderson and Roane Counties in eastern Tennessee, about 25 miles west of Knoxville. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... An early stage in the Trinity fireball. ...

After the war, Frank returned to Berkeley, working with Luis Alvarez and Wolfgang Panofsky to develop the proton linear accelerator. In 1947 he took a position as Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Minnesota. Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) of San Francisco, California, USA, was a famed physicist who worked at the University of California, Berkeley. ... Photograph of Wolfgang Panofsky. ... Properties In physics, the proton (Greek proton = first) is a subatomic particle with an electric charge of one positive fundamental unit (1. ... A Linear particle accelerator is an electrical device for the acceleration of subatomic particles. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... University of Minnesota, Twin Cities This article is about the oldest and largest campus of the University of Minnesota. ...

As part of a large investigation on the possible mishandling of "atomic secrets" during the war, Frank was called before the United States Congress House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Before the Committee, Frank testified that he had been a member of the Communist Party, but refused to name others he knew to be members. This caused a media sensation — that Robert Oppenheimer's brother was an admitted Communist — and led to Frank's immediate dismissal from his post at the University of Minnesota. HUAC hearings The House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC (or, rarely, HUAAC) (1945-1975) was an investigating committee of the United States House of Representatives. ...

After being branded a Communist, Frank could no longer find work in physics. He would later learn that the FBI would send threatening letters institutions after he had submitted employment applications. Furthermore, he was denied a passport by the U.S. government, so traveling abroad to work was out of the question as well. Frank and Jackie eventually sold one of the Van Gogh paintings he had inherited from his father, and with the money bought land in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and started life over again as a cattle farmer. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The title page of European Union passports bears the name European Union, then the name of the issuing country, in the languages of all EU countries. ... Self-portrait (1886) Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch painter, generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art history. ... Pagosa Springs is a town located in Archuleta County, Colorado. ...

In 1957, the Red Scare had lessened to the point that Frank was allowed to teach science at a local high school. In two years, he was offered a position at the University of Colorado teaching physics, and it was there that Frank began to take an interest in developing improvements in science education. He was eventually awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop new pedagogical methods, which resulted in a "Library of Experiments" — nearly one hundred models of classical laboratory experiments which could be used in aiding the teaching of physics to elementary school children. 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article contains information that has not been verified. ... The University of Colorado (CU) System consists of five campuses: University of Colorado at Boulder University of Colorado at Colorado Springs University of Colorado at Denver University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Fitzsimons campus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, scheduled to open in 2007 in Aurora, Colorado... The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency responsible for supporting basic science research mainly by providing research funding. ...

In 1965, Frank was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study the history of physics and conduct bubble chamber research at University College, London, where he was exposed to European science museums for the first time. Inspired, Frank devoted the next years of his life to creating a similar resource in the United States. 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... In the West, from antiquity up to the time of the Scientific Revolution, inquiry into the workings of the universe was known as natural philosophy, and those engaged in it were known as natural philosophers. ... A bubble chamber A bubble chamber is a vessel filled with a superheated transparent liquid used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it. ... The Front Quad University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ...

Four years later, the Exploratorium opened its doors for the first time — an interactive museum of art, science, and human perception based on the philosophy that science should be fun and accessible for people of all ages, set next to the stately Palace of Fine Arts of San Francisco. Until his death at his home in Sausalito, California on February 3, 1985, Frank Oppenheimer served as director to the museum and was personally involved in almost every aspect of its operations. The Exploratorium is a public science museum located in the Marina District at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. ... The Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Sausalito is a city located in Marin County, California. ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Caltech oral history interview
• Frank Oppenheimer site at the Exploratorium