The U.S. President understood the indispensable role of science in building economic competitiveness, curing disease, improving quality of life, and winning wars. He also understood the obvious role of our great universities in advancing science in all those domains.
He named an MIT professor to lead the White House Office of Scientific Research & Development. The President wrote to this advisor that “new frontiers of the mind are before us.” He instructed the advisor to advance “the war of science against disease” and the need to work with our great universities in “developing scientific talent in American youth.” Thus was the dialogue between FDR and Dr. Vannevar Bush in the 1940s.
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Image courtesy of University of North Carolina.