Office of Scientific Research and Development
Quick Summary
The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was a United States federal agency established during World War II. Headed by Vannevar Bush, the OSRD channeled significant funding to universities for research and development contracts. This office was instrumental in producing innovations such as the bazooka rocket, the proximity fuse, the DUKW amphibious vehicle, mass production of penicillin, and the use of DDT to combat malaria.1
The OSRD's work was part of a broader wartime push in science and technology, which saw rapid advancements in areas like radio-electronics, the electronic computer, ballistic missiles, and the atomic bomb. This period marked a significant increase in planned research and development as a tool of state power. Many of the OSRD's functions and the intelligence-gathering efforts of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) were later absorbed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).12
Ask Britannica AI about this topic
Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.
20th-century international relationsScience and technology in wartime…American effort to Vannevar Bush’s Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), which channeled contracts of $1,000,000 or more to over 50 universities during the war. The OSRD, the Naval Research Laboratory, and army arsenals produced such innovations as the antitank bazooka rocket, the proximity fuse, the DUKW amphibious vehicle,…
Read More…American effort to Vannevar Bush’s Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), which channeled contracts of $1,000,000 or more to over 50 universities during the war. The OSRD, the Naval Research Laboratory, and army arsenals produced such innovations as the antitank bazooka rocket, the proximity fuse, the DUKW amphibious vehicle,…
Read More
United StatesWar production…under the direction of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, played a more important role in production than in any previous war, making gains in rocketry, radar and sonar, and other areas. Among the new inventions was the proximity fuze, which contained a tiny radio that detonated an artillery…
Read More…under the direction of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, played a more important role in production than in any previous war, making gains in rocketry, radar and sonar, and other areas. Among the new inventions was the proximity fuze, which contained a tiny radio that detonated an artillery…
Read More
World War IIHiroshima and NagasakiOffice of Scientific Research and Development was created in June 1941 and given joint responsibility with the war department in the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. After four years of intensive and ever-mounting research and development efforts, an atomic device was set off…
Read MoreOffice of Scientific Research and Development was created in June 1941 and given joint responsibility with the war department in the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. After four years of intensive and ever-mounting research and development efforts, an atomic device was set off…
Read More
