CHAPTER XVIII 



SCIENTIFIC MANPOWER 



Organization 



A 



SIDE from the employment of a limited number of scien- 

 tists for its own staff and assistance to contractors in meeting the problems 

 of selective service, the initial approach of NDRC to the problems of scien- 

 tific personnel was through a contract with the National Academy of 

 Sciences. Under that contract the National Research Council established an 

 Office of Scientific Personnel in May 1941, with Henry A. Barton, Director 

 of the American Institute of Physics, as its Director and George W. Bailey, 

 President of the American Radio Relay League, as Chairman of its radio 

 section. The first task of the new office was to locate and certify to the 

 Signal Corps young electrical engineers who could be commissioned as 

 second lieutenants in the Electronics Training Group and sent to England 

 for training in the practical operation of radar under battle conditions. The 

 successful execution of this assignment was followed by comparable tasks 

 for various Navy bureaus as well as the stimulation of a special course in 

 the latest developments in electronics to equip instructors in a selected group 

 of colleges to train the large number of men who would be needed to 

 operate the radar gear then in the process of development. 



By the spring of 1942 the scientific manpower situation had become much 

 tighter, and there was a real danger not only that the Army, Navy, OSRD, 

 industry and educational institutions would find themselves bidding actively 

 for the services of the same individual but also that such competition would 

 develop among OSRD contractors trying to build staffs to carry rapidly 

 expanding programs. To consider this and other problems hinging around 

 scientific personnel. Bush appointed a Committee on Scientific Personnel, 

 which held its first meeting in June 1942, with Frank Aydelotte, Director 

 of the Institute for Advanced Study, as Chairman and Bailey as Secretary. 

 The principal functions of the Committee were to recommend policy in 

 regard to scientific personnel of OSRD and to advise contractors with re- 

 spect to bases of compensation for scientific workers and handling of prob- 

 lems arising from the Selective Service Act, as well as assisting them to obtain 

 personnel which they required. 



The problems of scientific manpower became more and more pressing 

 as the war progressed. The other demands upon Aydelotte's time were such 



