to coordinate research on weapons development. The Office of Scientific Research and Development oversaw the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb. Bush combined the work of the US military with research from universities - including MIT, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley - to speed up improvements in weapons technology.
In 1944, President Roosevelt sent Bush a letter asking for recommendations on future peacetime applications of the technologies developed during WWII. In 1945, Bush submitted his famous report, "Science, the Endless Frontier," which sparked the development of the National Science Foundation. That same year, Bush published an article entitled "As We May Think" in the Atlantic Monthly. The article presented his vision for a device called "memex" - an automated information management system, which later inspired many of the creators of the Internet.
After the war Bush worked in the private sector for a few years, then oversaw the creation of the National Science Foundation, which was established in 1950. He served on the Foundation's Advisory Committee for several years, then became chairman of the MIT Corporation, with which he remained involved for the remainder of his life.
Vannevar Bush died in 1974.