National Science Foundation

Alan T. Waterman, technical director of the Office of Naval Research, was named by President Truman on March 9th to direct the National Science Foundation—an appointment which represents the final step in putting the Foundation into full operation as the coordinating agency for basic scientific research in the United States. Dr. Waterman was selected from a slate of candidates submitted to the President by the National Science Foundation Board following its third meeting, held last February, and he comes to the post equipped with a convincing background of experience as a research administrator. During World War II, while on leave from the faculty of Yale University, he served the National Defense Research Committee as vice chairman of its Division D and as a deputy member of the NDRC Board of Review. He was also with the Office of Scientific Research and Development, both during and following the war, and for a brief period was chief scientist with the planning division of the Office of Research and Inventions before joining the ONR in 1947.