J. Robert Oppenheimer Autograph Manuscript Signed with Letter of Transmittal. Includes: J. Robert Oppenheimer Autograph Manuscript Signed. One page, 8.5" x 11", [Princeton, New Jersey]; circa December, 1954 – January, 1955. The letter was written for an educational exhibition and discusses his formula on the probability of the process of energy being converted into matter. It reads in part: "Thus a gamma ray of energy above a few million volts should materialize, in posing near an atomic nucleus, into a pair of electrons, positive, & negative…" Signed, "Robert Oppenheimer." Verna Hobson Typed Letter of Transmittal Signed. One page, 5.5" x 8.5", Princeton, New Jersey; January 25, 1955. Letter from Oppenheimer’s secretary, Verna Hobson, written on the Institute for Advanced Study Office of the Director’s letterhead to a Frank Groom Kirtz. The letter introduces Oppenheimer’s work. J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was an American theoretical physicist and is widely considered the father of the atomic bomb. He was educated at Harvard, Cambridge and Goettingen where he rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential names in experimental and theoretical physics such as J.J. Thomson and Max Born. He was the noted director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project and Director of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1947 to 1966. Oppenheimer became an advisor of the Atomic Energy Commission and lobbied for international nuclear arms control after the war. He became an outspoken critic of the development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1954 his security clearance was revoked in a McCarthy era hearing during the Second Red Scare. Condition: Manuscript letter has four small spots of dried adhesive residue on verso from prior mounting that are visible on recto. Smoothed mail folds. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved