二十世纪美国科学大厦的建筑工程师——万尼瓦尔·布什

Vannevar Bush, A Constructive Engineer of American Scientific Building of 20th Century

万尼瓦尔·布什(Vannevar Bush,1890-1974)以美国“大科学的先驱”而闻名于世。在第二次世界大战期间,布什创建并领导了美国著名的科技研究发展局(OSRD),因此被认为是“有可能决定战争胜负的人”;战后他所发起撰写的“布什报告”成了美国制定科学政策的“圣经”;他还预见到了个人计算机和数字化图书馆的无限前景,成了信息时代的预言者。本文叙述了布什的生平和他在上述几个领域所做出的贡献。

Vannevar Bush (1890 - 1974) is well known as the 'farther of big science' in United States. During World War II, he took the leadership of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and worked on the war effort so well as the 'person who can decide the war'. After the war, he provided a report that is named now as 'Bush Report' and the 'Bible of Science Policy'. Further more, he was a predictor and pivotal figure in digital computer and the hypertext by his invention of Differential Analyzer and conception of Memex, the idea of an easily accessible, individually configurable storehouse of knowledge. This paper gave a briefing of his life and contributions.