page_title: Carnegie Institution for Science
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Carnegie Institution for Science / History
caption_attribution_description: Vannevar Bush seated at a desk.
context_page_description: The Carnegie Institution of Washington, known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science, is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. The institution is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
  As of June 30, 2018, the Institution's endowment was valued at $996 million. Expenses for scientific programs and administration was $96.6 million. As of July 2, 2018, Dr. Eric D. Isaacs is president of the institution.
context_section_description: "It is proposed to found in the city of Washington, an institution which...shall in the broadest and most liberal manner encourage investigation, research, and discovery [and] show the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind..." 
  — Andrew Carnegie, January 28, 1902 
  When the United States joined World War II, Vannevar Bush was president of the Carnegie Institution. Several months before, on June 12, 1940, Bush had been instrumental in persuading President Franklin Roosevelt to create the National Defense Research Committee (later superseded by the Office of Scientific Research and Development) to mobilize and coordinate the nation's scientific war effort. Bush housed the new agency in the Carnegie Institution's administrative headquarters at 16th and P Streets, NW, in Washington, DC, converting its rotunda and auditorium into office cubicles. From this location, Bush supervised, among many other projects, the Manhattan Project. Carnegie scientists cooperated with the development of the proximity fuze and mass production of penicillin.
caption: Vannevar Bush.
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