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Michael May letter to John Wheeler, 05-December-1958, and John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 22-January-1959

JOHN ARCHIBALD WHEELER

Published May 19, 2011• 0 citations
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Abstract

Michael May was a physicist working on weapons research (he would later be director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). Here he responds to the published version of Hugh Everett's thesis, with a proposed friendly addition. John Wheeler does not seem to understand what May has in mind, but passes the letter on to Everett anyway. Wheeler also invites Everett to give a seminar at Princeton on his thesis, several years after his graduation.

Related papers

John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 17-September-1956

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By fall of 1956, John Wheeler was back in Princeton---but Hugh Everett was already in Virginia, where he was working for the Pentagon's Weapon Systems Evaluation Group, and so he and Wheeler continued to communicate by correspondence (to Wheeler's oft-repeated dismay). Here Wheeler confirms that he believes Everett's work is important, but insists that it needs to be made "javelin-proof" before Wheeler will sign off on it. Wheeler also passes along a letter from H. J. Groenewold, a German physicist at the University of Groningen who had read a draft of the long thesis. Later, Groenewold would respond at length to the revised, short version of Everett's thesis.

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Max Dresden letters to John Wheeler, 23 October 1957 and reply 30 October 1957, with note to Hugh Everett

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After the publication of Hugh Everett's thesis and John Wheeler's commentary in the September 1957 issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, several physicists wrote to Everett and Wheeler to discuss the papers. This one, from a physicist at Johns Hopkins named Max Dresden, seems to approve of Everett's contributions, and suggests that it might be related to a project he and a student worked on shortly before. Wheeler, at least at this point, seems interested in continuing to work on topics related to Everett's thesis, and also appears to believe that future publications on related topics are forthcoming. This letter is particularly interesting because it suggests that not only did Wheeler believe Everett could get an academic job at a top university, but that Robert Sachs, a prominent theoretical physicist at University of Wisconsin Madison, was actively attempting to recruit Everett. Everett, however, refused to follow any of these leads.

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John Wheeler letter to A.G. Shenstone 28-May-1956

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John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 16-May-1957

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Hugh Everett's thesis was ultimately published in September 1957 in a special issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, guest edited by Bryce DeWitt. In mid-May, 1957, Everett's thesis was already finished and he had passed the oral examination. The paper was already scheduled for publication, but John Wheeler apparently had some last minute changes to recommend.

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John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 25-May-1956

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In spring of 1956, John Wheeler was in residence at the Lorentz Institute in Leiden, Netherlands. In April, 1956 a copy of the long version of Hugh Everett's thesis was sent to the Institute; the next month, Wheeler traveled to Copenhagen to discuss the thesis with Bohr and others. Shortly after he left, Alexander Stern, an American physicist in residence in Copenhagen, held a seminar on Everett's thesis, and then forwarded his and others' ciriticisms in a long letter to Wheeler. Based on Stern's letter and on his own conversations with Bohr, Wheeler determined that Everett needed to make significant revisions to the framing and argumentation of his thesis.

•May 19, 2011•0 citations
Michael May was a physicist working on weapons research (he would later be director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). Here he responds to the published version of Hugh Everett's thesis, with a proposed friendly addition. John Wheeler does not seem to understand what May has in mind, but passes the letter on to Everett anyway. Wheeler also invites Everett to give a seminar at Princeton on his thesis, several years after his graduation.
By fall of 1956, John Wheeler was back in Princeton---but Hugh Everett was already in Virginia, where he was working for the Pentagon's Weapon Systems Evaluation Group, and so he and Wheeler continued to communicate by correspondence (to Wheeler's oft-repeated dismay). Here Wheeler confirms that he believes Everett's work is important, but insists that it needs to be made "javelin-proof" before Wheeler will sign off on it. Wheeler also passes along a letter from H. J. Groenewold, a German physicist at the University of Groningen who had read a draft of the long thesis. Later, Groenewold would respond at length to the revised, short version of Everett's thesis.
After the publication of Hugh Everett's thesis and John Wheeler's commentary in the September 1957 issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, several physicists wrote to Everett and Wheeler to discuss the papers. This one, from a physicist at Johns Hopkins named Max Dresden, seems to approve of Everett's contributions, and suggests that it might be related to a project he and a student worked on shortly before. Wheeler, at least at this point, seems interested in continuing to work on topics related to Everett's thesis, and also appears to believe that future publications on related topics are forthcoming. This letter is particularly interesting because it suggests that not only did Wheeler believe Everett could get an academic job at a top university, but that Robert Sachs, a prominent theoretical physicist at University of Wisconsin Madison, was actively attempting to recruit Everett. Everett, however, refused to follow any of these leads.
In spring of 1956, John Wheeler was in residence at the Lorentz Institute in Leiden, Netherlands. In April, 1956 a copy of the long version of Hugh Everett's thesis was sent to Niels Bohr's Institute; the next month, Wheeler traveled to Copenhagen to discuss the thesis with Bohr and others. This document is a letter Wheeler sent to A. G. Shenstone, another Princeton physicist, asking whether the department would object if Wheeler attended a conference in September, shortly before the beginning of the Fall semester. He mentions Everett's thesis and its reception in Copenhagen. Here he indicates that the thesis will need significant revisions, and that he hopes it will be publishable by the Danish Royal Academy.
In spring of 1956, John Wheeler was in residence at the Lorentz Institute in Leiden, Netherlands. In April, 1956 a copy of the long version of Hugh Everett's thesis was sent to the Institute; the next month, Wheeler traveled to Copenhagen to discuss the thesis with Bohr and others. Shortly after he left, Alexander Stern, an American physicist in residence in Copenhagen, held a seminar on Everett's thesis, and then forwarded his and others' ciriticisms in a long letter to Wheeler. Based on Stern's letter and on his own conversations with Bohr, Wheeler determined that Everett needed to make significant revisions to the framing and argumentation of his thesis.