Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Julie Melton

Julie Melton is an author and expert on civil society, development, and democratization. She is the daughter of Manhattan Project historian David Hawkins and Frances Hawkins, the founder of the nursery school at Los Alamos. During the Manhattan Project, her family lived in the same four-family as Victor and Ellen Weisskopf, who became some of their closest friends. In this interview, she shares her childhood memories of Los Alamos and anecdotes about prominent Manhattan Project scientists. She also describes her parents’ involvement in the Communist Party at Berkeley, where her father met Oppenheimer. She concludes with a brief reflection on the frustrations of being a woman at Los Alamos.