Vannevar Bush
1890 – 1974 American engineer, science administrator
Engineer who ran American wartime science, oversaw the start of the Manhattan Project, and helped create the modern research state.
- Affiliations
- MIT, Office of Scientific Research and Development, Carnegie Institution
Vannevar Bush was an MIT engineer who headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War, coordinating military research and helping launch the Manhattan Project. His 1945 report Science, the Endless Frontier argued for sustained federal funding of basic research and led to the creation of the National Science Foundation. His essay As We May Think, describing a device called the memex, anticipated ideas of hypertext and personal computing. He was a central architect of the partnership between government, universities, and the military.
Connections
- associate of J. Robert Oppenheimer — Bush oversaw the wartime research program under which he led Los Alamos.
- associate of J. Robert Oppenheimer — Oversaw the wartime research program that Oppenheimer led at Los Alamos.
In the timeline
- 1931 Vannevar Bush builds the Differential Analyzer central figure
- 1940 National Defense Research Committee created mentioned
- 1942 – 1947 Launch of the Manhattan Project the science administrator who oversaw its start
- 1945 Vannevar Bush publishes 'As We May Think' central figure
- 1945 Vannevar Bush delivers Science, the Endless Frontier central figure
- 1950 Founding of the National Science Foundation the author of the report behind it