Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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Expert commentator on J. Robert Oppenheimer

Author of #1 bestseller available for interviews tying into Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster movie OPPENHEIMER

As this summer's hottest blockbuster movie Oppenheimer is about to open, you're going to need someone to talk about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, and we have the expert you've been looking for.

Bestselling futurist ROBERT J. SAWYER has been called "Canada's answer to Michael Crichton" by The Toronto Star and "a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation" by The New York Times.

His latest novel The Oppenheimer Alternative covers the life and secret history of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the character being played by Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster film, which opens worldwide on Friday, July 21, 2023.

Sawyer did two years of full-time research on Oppenheimer and the atomic-bomb effort before writing his novel, and other experts agree Sawyer knows what he's talking about:

• Martin Sherwin, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (the basis for Christopher Nolan's biopic Oppenheimer), says "Oppenheimer fans will be intrigued by Sawyer's novel."

• Gregory Benford, physicist at the University of California Irvine, says: "The feel and detail of the Manhattan Project figures is deep and well done. I knew many of these physicists, and Sawyer nails them accurately."

• Perimeter Institute physicist Lee Smolin, the author of The Trouble with Physics, agrees: "I know the history of this period well and I'm one or two degrees of separation from many of these people. Sawyer's portrayals ring true to me. I loved it!"

• Mike Shinabery, education specialist at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico (where the first atomic-bomb test was conducted), says: "Sawyer's The Oppenheimer Alternative is a wonderful book full of accurate descriptions — J. Robert Oppenheimer comes to life in its pages."

• And Doug Beason, former Associate Laboratory Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory, adds that "The Oppenheimer Alternative is incredibly realistic: the characters, locations, the era, and even the science. I felt like I was back in Los Alamos — and I should know: I worked there!"

Based on the latest research and recently declassified documents, Sawyer will enthrall your audience with stunning revelations about Oppenheimer and the dawn of the atomic age:

• Why Oppenheimer tried to give away his infant daughter for adoption.

• The exact moment when Oppenheimer went from being in favor of using the atomic bomb on Japan to when he became a lifelong disarmament activist.

• How a foolish slip of the tongue on Oppenheimer's part ruined the life of his best friend and caused Oppie himself to lose all access to nuclear secrets.

• The time Oppenheimer got away with attempted murder at Cambridge University — and the startling sexual secret that had driven him to try to kill a man.

• The suicide of both Oppenheimer's lover and his daughter.

• Fascinating revelations about whether the United States really did have to drop the bomb on Japan to end the war — and why two bombs were used in such rapid succession.

• Sawyer can also talk about all the previous attempts to tell the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer on film and TV — the great ... and the awful.

A multiple TEDx speaker and a frequent science commentator for the CBC and the BBC, Rob has been interviewed over 380 times on TV, over 430 times on radio, and over a thousand times in print. He's guaranteed to give your audience what they want to hear. He lives in Toronto.

"Robert, I have to congratulate you! You love your subject matter, you're bubbly, you're excitable — you're the perfect guest." —George Noory, host of Coast To Coast AM, the most-listened-to overnight radio program in North America, heard on over 600 stations

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