Educated as an electrical engineer, Vannevar Bush had a distinguished career that included electrical engineering and a number of contributions to the development of the computer. He is best known, however, as an administrator of government. Bush was responsible for shaping governmental support for science after World War II. His work included the creation of the National Science Foundation, the premier funding agency of scientific research in the United States.
Bush was professor and then dean of engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also served as president of the Carnegie Institution of Scientific Research. His most important post, however, was as director of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. This job gave him direct access to President Franklin Roosevelt and President Truman, enabling him, almost single-handedly, to shape postwar U.S. science and technology policy. His writings, although not numerous, also were singularly influential in conveying to government leaders and to the world at large his vision of science as the progressive influence in the modern world.
Bush died in 1974.
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