WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Vannevar Bush
    n 1: United States electrical engineer who designed an early
         analogue computer and who led the scientific program of the
         United States during World War II (1890-1974) [syn: Bush,
         Vannevar Bush]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Vannevar Bush
Bush, Vannevar

    Dr. Vannevar Bush, 1890-1974.  The man who invented
   hypertext, which he called memex, in the 1930s.

   Bush did his undergraduate work at Tufts College, where he
   later taught.  His masters thesis (1913) included the
   invention of the Profile Tracer, used in surveying work to
   measure distances over uneven ground.  In 1919, he joined
   MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering, where he stayed
   for twenty-five years.  In 1932, he was appointed
   vice-president and dean.  At this time, Bush worked on optical
   and photocomposition devices, as well as a machine for rapid
   selection from banks of microfilm.

   Further positions followed: president of the Carnegie
   Institute in Washington, DC (1939); chair of National Advisory
   Committee for Aeronautics (1939); director of Office of
   Scientific Research and Development.  This last role was as
   presidential science advisor, which made him personally
   responsible for the 6,000 scientists involved in the war
   effort.  During World War II, Bush worked on radar antenna
   profiles and the calculation of artillery firing tables.  He
   proposed the development of an analogue computer, which
   later became the Rockefeller Differential Analyser.

   Bush is the pivotal figure in hypertext research.  His
   ground-breaking 1945 paper, "As We May Think," speculated on
   how a machine might be created to assist human reasoning, and
   introduced the idea of an easily accessible, individually
   configurable storehouse of knowledge.  This machine, which he
   dubbed "memex," in various ways anticipated hypermedia and
   the World Wide Web by nearly half a century.

   Electronic Labyrinth article
   (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0034.html).

   Bush's famous article, "As We May Think"
   (http://theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm).

   (2001-06-17)