Source : WordNet®

Vannevar Bush
     n : 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) [syn: {Bush}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Vannevar Bush
     
         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
        (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0034.html)}.
     
        {Bush's famous article, "As We May Think"
        (http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm)}.
     
        (2001-06-17)