Andy Oppenheimer


Andy Oppenheimer AIExpE MIABTI is a UK-based expert and consultant in counter-terrorism and CBRNE.
He has been editor of several journals on defence and security, including Chemical, Biological & Nuclear Warfare from 2009, Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence and NBC International from 2006 to 2008, and was co-editor of Jane's World Armies from 2002 to 2004. He has served as a CBRN consultant for Jane's Consultancy Group and Oxford Analytica.

Personal life

Born in 1953, Oppenheimer grew up in Leeds and Liverpool and graduated from Liverpool University in 1974. He then moved to London and worked in popular science and academic publishing before becoming an author and subject matter expert in defence and counterterrorism in 2001. He has been a singer/songwriter of electro pop music from 1982. He is not related to J. Robert Oppenheimer, but has been greatly influenced and inspired by his work and life. He became an Irish citizen in 2020.

Professional career

During the 1980s and 1990s, Oppenheimer conducted research into nuclear weapons and the Cold War along with research into the Irish Republican Army and improvised explosive devices. He became a Member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians in 2008 and an Associate Member of the UK Institute of Explosives Engineers in 2011.
From 2012 to 2015 he was a Course Contributor to the University of St. Andrews Certificate of Terrorism Studies, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, writing the CBRN Weapons in Terrorism Course Module in 2012 and the IEDs: Threats & Countermeasures Course Module in 2013. He has written for defence journals including Military Technology, CBNW, RUSI Journal, Strategic Intelligence Review, Counter-IED Report, Langley Intelligence Group Network, Police Oracle, Explosives Engineering, and several Jane's Information Group publications from 2002 to 2006, including Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor and Jane's Intelligence Digest. He was Editor of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence from 2006 to 2008.
Oppenheimer has made TV appearances and radio broadcasts as an expert on terrorism and CBRNE and acts as a consultant for films and documentaries, including Mountbatten: Death of a Royal, Gaddafi and the IRA, The World's Deadliest Arms Race, Terror Attacks That Shocked Britain, and Spooks.

Published work

His first book IRA: The Bombs and the Bullets – A History of Deadly Ingenuity was published in 2008. It analyses the IRA's mission, doctrine, targeting, and acquisition of weapons and explosives.
He has since published two science-fiction novels on Amazon: Fields of Orion : An Odyssey and Fields of Orion The Mission.
In 2021 he published Stars of Orion: An Astronomy Special: a collection of photos and stories of the Constellation Orion by 45 amateur and professional astronomers.
He published the science fiction novel Orion: The Hunter's Story in 2024.

Music

Andy Oppenheimer is also a singer-songwriter of electronic pop music since the early 1980s, when he formed Oppenheimer Analysis with producer Martin Lloyd. They released the tape-only album New Mexico in 1982.
In 2005 OA re-formed and an EP of early material, Oppenheimer Analysis, was the first release by the New York-based Minimal Wave label, with a release of the 1982 New Mexico album. The Oppenheimer Analysis EP entered its fifth re-pressing in 2023. From 2006 to 2013, OA played live in Germany, Belgium, and London.
Oppenheimer also wrote and sang from 2010 to 2015 as Touching the Void with veteran producer Mark Warner and released an album, Love, Longing and Loss in 2015. He continues to create songs as Oppenheimer MkII with producer Mahk Rumbae. Oppenheimer MkII released their first album The Presence of the Abnormal in 2012, which was re-released on vinyl in 2023 on German label Minimalkombinat, and an EP, Out in the Field, on Northern Irish record label TONN Recordings in 2021. He has played live as Oppenheimer MkII at music festivals in Germany and Poland and performs at clubs in Vienna and London. In 2023, also released by TONN Recordings, Oppenheimer produced an album continuing the Orion theme, Songs From A Constellation, in collaboration with Northern Irish electro musician and producer Crystalline Stricture.
Oppenheimer has also painted pictures from childhood and his surrealist works were featured in several exhibitions in London in the late 1990s. His main pastime is archery, shooting at clubs in London and Brighton.

Books

  • 2008: IRA: The Bombs and the Bullets
  • 2019: Fields of Orion: An Odyssey
  • 2020: Fields of Orion The Mission
  • 2021: The Hunter's Story by Orion
  • 2021: Stars of Orion: An Astronomy Special
  • 2024: to come Orion: The Hunter's Story

    Discography

Albums

  • 1982: New Mexico as Andie Oppenheimer
  • 2013: The Presence of the Abnormal as Oppenheimer MkII
  • 2015: Love, Longing and Loss as Touching the Void
  • 2023: Songs From a Constellation with Crystalline Stricture

    EPs

  • 2005: Der Wissenschaftler as Oppenheimer Analysis
  • 2005: Oppenheimer Analysis as Oppenheimer Analysis
  • 2015: Line of Sight EP as Oppenheimer MkII
  • 2021: Out in the Field as Oppenheimer MkII

    Singles

  • 2010: Oppenheimer Analysis as Oppenheimer Analysis
  • 2011: Science / Washington as Oppenheimer Analysis
  • 2012: Parallel Lives as Touching the Void
  • 2014: Obsession / In this Together as Touching the Void