biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1890–1974)
|
| biography:
| Engineer and government official, born in Everett, Massachusetts, USA. With a varied background in academic studies, private industry (General Electric), and government research (including anti-submarine work for the US Navy in World War 1), he became an engineering professor (later dean) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1919–38). During these years he also kept his hand in the private sector as a consulting engineer, among other things founding the company that became the Raytheon Corp. He also conducted research that led to several inventions, including a differential analyzer (1928), a direct ancestor of the modern computer. As early as 1940 he was becoming active in organizing the US scientists and engineers for the imminent war, and this was formalized when he was appointed director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. After the war, he continued to serve as an adviser to various governmental boards and agencies on scientific policies. Through many years (1938–55) he also served as president of the Carnegie Institution. In his later years he published numerous articles and books for a broader public, including Modern Arms and Free Men (1949), which called for closer ties between responsible scientific and public policies. |
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