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Didn't she date Oppenheimer at some point while she was his student? And wasn't she his first graduate student? I seem to recall this. I'll look it up at some point... --Fastfission 00:53, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't come across it in her obit, but a better source on Oppenheimer might have some more information.--nixie 00:58, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think it is in Gregg Herken's Brotherhood of the Bomb, but I can check at some point. I believe it is searchable on Amazon you are interested. --Fastfission 01:05, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I found the quote:
Almost all who knew Oppenheimer at Berkeley agreed that oen incident -- Oppie's date with Melba Phillips, his first graduate studnet -- wa emlematic of the riddle that was his personality. When Phillips had fallen asleep during a drive with Oppie up into the Berkeley hills, Oppenheimer had simply parked the car and left the girl stranded while he walked home. To Oppie's defenders, the episode was an example of their professor's endearing absent-mindedness. To his detractors, including many he had snubbed or humiliated on the Berkeley faculty, it was proof of his casual cruelty. (from Gregg Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller (Henry Holt, 2002), p. 15).
Hmm. The mentioning of her as the first graduate student seems rather casual, though the fact that they dated might be interesting. The footnote references an interview with another scientist who knew Oppenheimer. --Fastfission 01:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Seems like it might be worth working into the article.--nixie 01:21, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Justification of the McCarran Commission, not discussion of Dr. Phillips: delete offending text.[edit]
The current version of this article states, "It is these reasons that are likely the cause of her call to testify in 1952. College campuses and unions seemed to be two groups of heavy focus in this era. Young, ambitious, educated adults can be seen as threats if they put their influences in the wrong places. Unions also seemed to be a cause for concern as they were seen by some to be the foundation for Vladimir Lenin's communist takeover of Russia", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melba_Phillips&oldid=1092975817 . This is a justification of the McCarran Commission and its motivations, not a discussion of Dr. Phillips. If someone wants to discuss causes and claim justifications for the antecedents to McCarthyism, that material belongs in the Wikipedia entry for United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security and/or McCarthyism. As a counter-point that might get people favorably inclined to the quote above to understand the problem with inserting this sort of prejudicial and irrelevant material into a biographical page, I could in principle edit the page to state the Senator McCarran was aiming for political advantage by smearing New Deal Democrats and an associate of Oppenheimer to generate press coverage. But I do not do that because I think that the bio page for Dr. Phillips should be about Dr. Phillips, and to some extent be about the way that anti-communist hysteria damaged her career. The page about Dr. Phillips should not be about Senator McCarran, or why Senator McCarran engaging in anti-communist investigations. The offending text should go away from this page. Pwfen (talk) 13:01, 14 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Another quote: "However as pointed out before, college campuses seem to be hot spots for communist ideas." This simply isn't relevant to Dr. Phillip's biographical page. I am beginning to suspected biographical page vandalism. Pwfen (talk) 13:16, 14 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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