Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush was an American electrical engineer who built one of the first practical analog computers and later directed the United States' wartime scientific research effort. In 1927 he constructed the differential analyzer, a mechanical calculating machine at MIT capable of solving differential equations with as many as eighteen independent variables. As director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development from 1941 to 1947, he coordinated roughly 6,000 scientists and administered major wartime programs including radar development at the Radiation Laboratory, the proximity fuze, and the initial organization of the Manhattan Project. In a 1945 report to the president, Science, The Endless Frontier, he argued for sustained federal funding of basic research, laying the intellectual groundwork for the creation of the National Science Foundation. He also described a theoretical microfilm-based information-retrieval device called the memex, which influenced later hypertext systems including the work of Douglas Engelbart. He received the National Medal of Science in 1963.