Guide to the Hans Bethe Papers,
ca. 1931-1995

Hans Bethe was born in 1906 in Strasbourg. He attended the University of Munich, studying with Arnold Sommerfeld, and after receiving his degree, taught at Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Munich. In 1930 and 1931, he received fellowships to Cambridge and to Rome, where he worked with Enrico Fermi. Only 28 when he left Germany, Bethe had already done outstanding research in atomic, condensed matter, and nuclear physics. At Cornell before World War II, Bethe published his famous reviews of nuclear physics and the theory of energy production in stars, for which we would win the Nobel Prize in 1967. During the war he was a key figure at Los Alamos as head of the theoretical physics division. His 1947 calculation of the Lamb shift paved the way for the revolution in quantum electrodynamics.

As a faculty member at Cornell, Bethe trained and inspired many young physicists who became prominent in their own right. He has been an advisor to several United States Presidents and, since World War II, a prominent advocate of nuclear-arms control. Since his retirement from the Cornell faculty in 1975, Bethe has focused on research in astrophysics, where his unique mastery of such diverse subjects as thermonuclear processes, shock waves, and neutrino reactions has kept him in the forefront of science.

Papers consist of Bethe's calculations, notes, and correspondence with colleagues concerning nuclear physics, solar, stellar, and nuclear energy, radiation, conduction in metals, quantum mechanics, the recommendation of physicists for various positions and grants, administration of the Cornell University Physics Department, Cornell courses, arms and arms control, underwater explosion research, the nuclear test ban, and other topics; reports and hearings of the Atomic Energy Commission; Navy research reports; President's Science Advisory Committee memoranda; a phonograph album of a television interview with Bethe concerning scientific education in the United States; articles, reprints, lectures, and textbooks by Bethe and others; reviews of professional writings; Ph.D. theses from the Cornell Physics Department; an engraving and two posters of Bethe used to advertise the Lauritsen Memorial Lecture for 1980; and correspondence received when Bethe won the Nobel Prize. Collection includes material on the Strategic Defense Initiative, the H-bomb and the anti-ballistic missile, the end of the Cold War, and supernovae.

Correspondents include Kenneth T. Bainbridge, Niels Bohr, Gregory Breit, Lee A. DuBridge, George Gamow, R. Clifton Gibbs, Emil J. Konopinski, Irving Langmuir, Ernest O. Lawrence, Edward M. McMillan, Carleton Murdock, Lothar W. Nordheim, J. Robert Oppenheimer, George B. Pegram, Isidor I. Rabi, Morris E. Rose, Bruno Rossi, Harlow Shapley, Eugene Paul Wigner, Robert Wilson, and Victor Weisskopf.

Also, five videocassettes: "An Evening with Hans Bethe: The German A-Bomb Project"; "A Conversation with Emeritus Professor Dr. Hans Bethe and Dr. Victor Weisskopf"; "A Conversation with Emeritus Professors Dr. Hans Bethe and Dr. Robert Wilson"; and "Hans Bethe: Super Nova Mechanism" and "'I can do that!': Hans Bethe's First 60 Years at Cornell." Includes a photograph of Bethe, Day, Long et al. at the groundbreaking for Newman Laboratory, and a photograph of Bethe with Peter Carruthers and Carson Mark near Los Alamos, circa 1980.

Unsorted folders primarily contain correspondence.