Office of Scientific Research and Development

Office of Scientific Research and Development

OSRD
Agency overview
Formed	June 28, 1941 (1941-06-28)
Preceding agency	National Defense Research Committee
Dissolved	December 1947
Superseding agency	related extant agencies: NSF, DoE
Jurisdiction	United States Government
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Agency executive	Vannevar Bush
Parent agency	Office for Emergency Management
Child agencies	Committee on Medical Research Manhattan Project

The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by Executive Order 8807 on June 28, 1941.^[1][2] It superseded the work of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), was given almost unlimited access to funding and resources, and was directed by Vannevar Bush, who reported only to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The research was widely varied, and included projects devoted to new and more accurate bombs, reliable detonators, work on the proximity fuze, guided missiles, radar and early-warning systems, lighter and more accurate hand weapons, more effective medical treatments (including work to make penicillin at scale, which was necessary for its use as a drug^[3]), more versatile vehicles, and, the most secret of all, the S-1 Section, which later became the Manhattan Project and developed the first atomic weapons.

References

1. "Executive Order 8807—Establishing the Office of Scientific Research and Development". The American Presidency Project. 1941-06-28. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
2. Sullivan, Neil J. (2016). The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-61234-815-5.
3. "Alexander Fleming Discovery and Development of Penicillin - Landmark". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 3 August 2022.

External links

• Office of Scientific Research and Development Collection at Library of Congress. Original research conducted by the U.S. and Allies during World War II- includes technical reports, memos, drawings, etc.
• Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) Reports at Library of Congress. A digital collection of declassified technical laboratory and field reports as well as other reference material from OSRD’s Division 12: Transportation and Division 16 Optics/ Camouflage. The material was digitized from the microfilm collection and represents the “most important” research reports found in the hardcopy collection.
• OSRD OSRD timeline
• Records of the OSRD at the National Archive
• Stewart, Irvin. Organizing Scientific Research for War: The Administrative History of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948.