jay robert oppositen hiemer who was in charge of the science research thought that would be enough, but it turned out at los alamos alone there were 5,000 people, and they supplemented these senior people with kids who had just finished a year or two of college, may have had some chemistry or mathematics or physics and passed an aptitude test that showed they were very apt, intelligent, and capable. these people were recruited mainly in 1933, 1944, and were sent to work on the project as the junior scientists. >> i understand a very ethn ethnicalethni ethnically and diverse population. >> it was. there were hispanic laborers in new mexico and some people from the pueblos surrounding los alamos worked often as nannies or housekeepers so the wives of the scientists could help their husbands on the project itself. >> well, all these decades later when you went to find these workers to create the oral history project, how did you find them? how did you decide who to interview? >> well, it was -- first thing we did was have an event here in washington, d.c. to remember the manhattan project.

jay robert oppositen hiemer who was in charge of the science research thought that would be enough, but it turned out at los alamos alone there were 5,000 people, and they supplemented these senior people with kids who had just finished a year or two of college, may have had some chemistry or mathematics or physics and passed an aptitude test that showed they were very apt, intelligent, and capable. these people were recruited mainly in 1933, 1944, and were sent to work on the project as the junior scientists. >> i understand a very ethn ethnicalethni ethnically and diverse population. >> it was. there were hispanic laborers in new mexico and some people from the pueblos surrounding los alamos worked often as nannies or housekeepers so the wives of the scientists could help their husbands on the project itself. >> well, all these decades later when you went to find these workers to create the oral history project, how did you find them? how did you decide who to interview? >> well, it was -- first thing we did was have an event here in washington, d.c. to remember the manhattan project.