Atomic cocktail

Jul. 8—Southern Methodist University Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus James K. Hopkins' specialty is modern Britain, and his research is on the ways in which ideologies shape social and political change. But at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 8, he joins Ellen Bradbury Reid, founder of the local nonprofit Recursos de Santa Fe, and filmmakers Bruce Gelfand and Alton Walpole for the presentation "Bridge to the Atomic Age: From Los Alamos to the House at Otowi Bridge."

Hopkin's father was an officer in the 509th Composite Bomb Squad, which planned the atomic missions against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. Bradbury Reid, the daughter of a Manhattan Project engineer, shares her perspective on growing up in the confines of a closely guarded community in Los Alamos.

Gelfand and Walpole discuss a film project, currently in the development stage, on the life of Edith Warner, stationmaster at Otowi Bridge, who often hosted Manhattan Project scientists at her home near the bridge, which spanned the Rio Grande, en route to Los Alamos.

The free talk is part of La Fonda on the Plaza's Centennial Speaker Series. The Lumpkins Ballroom, La Fonda on the Plaza, 100 E. San Francisco St., 505-982-5511, lafondasantafe.com