Bush, Vannevar

American engineer, primary scientific adviser to Roosevelt and Truman, immensely influential in plans for nuclear weapons, missiles, aviation, and advanced propulsion 1939-1949. Discouraged early development of the ICBM.

Vannevar Bush was one of the most powerful members of the scientific and technological elite to emerge during World War II. An aeronautical engineer on the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bush lobbied to create and then headed the National Defense Research Committee in 1940 to oversee science and technology in the federal government. Later, its name was changed to the Office of Science Research and Development (OSRD) and Bush used it as a means to build a powerful infrastructure for scientific research in support of the federal government. Although he went to the Carnegie Institution after the war, Bush remained a powerful force in shaping post-war science and technology by serving on numerous federal advisory committees and preparing several influential reports.