Vannevar Bush and the Culture of American Engineering

以任何标准衡量，万尼瓦尔·布什都是20世纪的核心人物之一。作为一名积极进取的年轻电气工程师，他于1919年加入麻省理工学院。1932年，他一路晋升为麻省理工学院第一任副院长兼工程学院院长。1939年，他搬到华盛顿，担任卡内基研究所的主席，该研究所是美国著名的私人基金会之一，也是基础科学的支持来源。然而，战争的威胁很快将他的注意力转移到了另一类问题上；在短时间内，布什一跃成为动员科学和工程为美国战争努力的领导者。国防研究委员会和科学研究发展办公室随后取得的成就是众所周知的，特别是他们对导致改进雷达、近距离引信、合成青霉素和原子弹的项目的管理。这些成功给科学界带来了恶名，也给布什带来了影响，布什在公共辩论和立法斗争中发挥了关键作用，产生了原子能委员会和国家科学基金会。具体地说，欧文斯博士对万尼瓦尔·布什的研究集中在1940-1955年间，揭示了他在这一关键时期的生活和职业生涯，在这个关键时期，美国工程学和美国科学的“政治”之间出现了重要的联系，并使我们能够理解他在更广泛的美国历史背景下的意义。欧文斯博士的研究将对理解涉及科学、政治权力、国家安全以及技术专长对社会进步的贡献的重大当代困境做出重要贡献。

By any standard, Vannevar Bush was one of the central figures of the twentieth century. An aggressive, young electrical engineer who joined the staff of MIT in 1919, he rose through the ranks to become in 1932 the Institute's first vice-president and dean of engineering. In 1939, he moved to Washington to assume the presidency of the Carnegie Institution, one of the country's prestigious private foundations and sources of support for basic science. However, the threat of war quickly diverted his attention towards problems of a different sort; in short order, Bush catapulted into the leadership of the drive to mobilize science and engineering for the American war effort. The subsequent accomplishments of the National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development are well known, especially their managements of the projects that led to improved radars, the proximity fuse, synthetic penicillin, and the atomic bomb. These successes brought notoriety to the scientific community and influence to Bush who played a key part in the public debates and legislative battles that produced the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation. Specifically, Dr. Owens' examination of Vannevar Bush, concentrating on the period 1940-1955, illuminates his life and career during this critical period during which important connections between American engineering and the "politics" of American science emerged and enables us to understand his significance in the wider context of American History. Dr. Owens study will make an important contribution to understanding the great contemporary dilemmas that touch science, political power, national security, and the contribution of technical expertise to social progress.