Oppenheimer
On the Same Page gives new students (and everyone else) at Berkeley something in common to talk about: a work that has changed the way we view the world. This year’s work, selected especially for the fall 2024 incoming class, is the film Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award–winning film follows the spectacular rise and fall of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s career, beginning in the fall of 1929 when he arrived at Berkeley as an assistant professor in the physics department at the age of 25. The years he spent at Berkeley were a defining moment for the young professor and future father of the atomic bomb: here, he met close friends and collaborators, established his reputation as a charismatic public intellectual, and began his political awakening.
Our student reviewers were “fascinated by the questions the film raises about the value of technology” and “the role of academia in war.” Oppenheimer will change the way you see and think about UC Berkeley and our campus’s place in history and the world.
News and Events
Oppenheimer’s Berkeley Years: Pioneering Research & Personal Legacy
Friday, July 28, 2023
11:30 AM–1:00 PM
Chevron Auditorium at International House
Cathryn Carson, chair and professor of Berkeley’s Department of History, whose research includes nuclear history and the history of 20th century physics. She co-edited a volume of papers about Oppenheimer, Reappraising Oppenheimer: Centennial Studies and Reflections.
Mark Chadwick, chief scientist and chief operating officer for weapons physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who edited and published a suite of papers on the technical history of the Trinity test.
Jon Else, professor emeritus of Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, who created the documentary The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb.
Yasunori Nomura, a Berkeley professor of physics and director of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics.
Karl van Bibber, professor of nuclear engineering at Berkeley, who spent 25 years conducting nuclear energy research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Film crew sends UC Berkeley back to the 1940s
June 2, 2022 | By Public Affairs
A major Hollywood studio sent UC Berkeley back to the 1940s at the end of May for a motion picture that was filmed on campus.
The set, which included old cars and costumes, was constructed over two days in an area near Sather Tower, Wheeler Hall and Physics North, a 1924 building designed by John Galen Howard and known as LeConte Hall until 2020.
The details of the movie production could not be released, but the team worked closely with the campus’ Capital Strategies department on coordinating the film shoot, said Kyle Gibson, the director of communications for the department.
Faculty Planning Committee
Faculty with expertise in the themes of this year’s selection, from a wide range of disciplines, plan engaging events and activities for students throughout the academic year. In previous years, the faculty planning committee has organized panels, roundtables, film screenings, concerts, faculty dialogues, karaoke nights, contests, and more.
If you would like to join our efforts, please email Aileen Liu.
Cathryn Carson
Professor and Chair, Department of History
Steven Kahn
Dean of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Professor of Physics, Professor of Astronomy
Yasunori Nomura
Professor, Director, Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics
Kent Puckett
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Ida May and William J. Eggers Jr. Chair in English
Alan Tansman
Professor, Japanese Program
Karl van Bibber
Professor and Executive Associate Dean for the College of Engineering
Acknowledgments
Selection Committee
David Ackerly, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, and Integrative Biology
Stephen Best, English and Film & Media
Elisa Diana Huerta, Centers for Educational Justice & Community Engagement
Corliss Lee, Library
Oliver O’Reilly, Mechanical Engineering
Aileen Liu, Chair, Director of Curricular Engagement Initiatives
Student Reviewers
Alaina Delsignore, Alexa Gutierrez Reyna, Carina Kim, Chris Harjadi, Daniela Arreola, Kierstyn Cohen, Kuldeep Dungarwal, Lucille Lorenz, McKinley Keys, Muhammad Ibrahim Noon, Nichelle Wong, Niki Ebrahimnejad, Prab Kaur, Samantha Lindsay, Sardaana Eginova, Sofia Gonzalez, and Zeyu Hou
Special thanks to Sonya Lee and Belinda White.