Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890 –  June 30, 1974) was an American engineer and science administrator, known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex—seen as a pioneering concept for the  World Wide Web. A leading figure in the development of the military-industrial complex and the military funding of science in the United States, Bush was a prominent policymaker and public intellectual ("the patron saint of American science") during World War II and the ensuing Cold War. Through his public career, Bush was a proponent of democratic technocracy and of the centrality of technological innovation and entrepreneurship for both economic and geopolitical security. His name is pronounced van-NEE-ver (with the same stresses as in "receiver") (IPA: [ˌvæˈniː.vɚ]).
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Noun
1. United States electrical engineer who designed an early analogue computer and who led the scientific program of the United States during World War II (1890-1974)
(synonym) Bush
(hypernym) electrical engineer

<person> Dr. Vannevar Bush, 1890-1974. The man who invented hypertext, which he called memex, in the 1930s.
Bush did his undergraduate work at Tufts College, where he later taught. His masters thesis (1913) included the invention of the Profile Tracer, used in surveying work to measure distances over uneven ground. In 1919, he joined MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering, where he stayed for twenty-five years. In 1932, he was appointed vice-president and dean. At this time, Bush worked on optical and photocomposition devices, as well as a machine for rapid selection from banks of microfilm.
Further positions followed: president of the Carnegie Institute in Washington, DC (1939); chair of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1939); director of Office of Scientific Research and Development. This last role was as presidential science advisor, which made him personally responsible for the 6,000 scientists involved in the war effort. During World War II, Bush worked on radar antenna profiles and the calculation of artillery firing tables. He proposed the development of an analogue computer, which later became the Rockefeller Differential Analyser.
Bush is the pivotal figure in hypertext research. His ground-breaking 1945 paper, "As We May Think," speculated on how a machine might be created to assist human reasoning, and introduced the idea of an easily accessible, individually configurable storehouse of knowledge. This machine, which he dubbed "memex," in various ways anticipated hypermedia and the World Wide Web by nearly half a century.
Electronic Labyrinth article.
Bush's famous article, "As We May Think".
(2001-06-17)