Solly Zuckerman , Baron Zuckerman Solly Zuckerman , Baron Zuckerman , OM , KCB , FRS ( 30 May 1904 – 1 April 1993 ) was a British public servant , zoologist and operational research pioneer . He is best remembered as a scientific advisor to the Allies on bombing strategy in World War II , for his work to advance the cause of nuclear non - proliferation , and for his role in bringing attention to global economic issues . Early life and education . Solomon Zuckerman was born in Cape Town , present - day South Africa on 30 May 1904 , the second child and eldest son of Moses and Rebecca Zuckerman ( née Glaser ) , both children of Jewish immigrants . He was educated at the South African College School . After studying medicine at the University of Cape Town , and later attending Yale University , he came to London in 1926 to complete his studies at University College Hospital Medical School . He began his career at the London Zoological Society in 1928 , and worked as a research anatomist until 1932 . He taught at Oxford University from 1934 – 1945 , during which time he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . World War II . During World War II , Zuckerman worked on several research projects for the British government , including the design of a civilian defence helmet ( colloquially known as the Zuckerman helmet ) and measuring the effect of bombing on people and buildings and an assessment of the bombardment ( Operation Corkscrew ) of the Italian island of Pantelleria in 1943 . He was thus one of the pioneers of the science of operational research . He was given an honorary commission as a wing commander in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch of the Royal Air Force on 13 May 1943 , and promoted to honorary group captain on 20 September 1943 . Zuckerman ' s suggestion , made when he was Scientific Director of the British Bombing Survey Unit ( BBSU ) , and accepted by Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder and Supreme Allied Commander U . S . General Dwight D . Eisenhower in the lead - up to the Normandy landings , that the Allies concentrate on disrupting the German - controlled French transportation system through heavy aerial bombing of rail lines and marshalling yards , was officially called the Transportation Plan , but was privately referred to by its opponents as " Zuckerman ' s Folly " . A focus of Zuckerman ' s plan , learned in Italy , was to target locomotives and the capacity to service them due to a shortage in France prior to the Normandy Campaign . This had the effect of pushing rail heads back from the front causing trucks to be diverted from a role of manoeuvre to that of logistics , which resulted in greater petrol consumption . Later career . After the war , Zuckerman was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1946 New Year Honours . He left the Royal Air Force on 1 September 1946 , and was then Professor of Anatomy at Birmingham University until 1968 , chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence from 1960 to 1966 , and chief scientific adviser to the British government from 1964 to 1971 . He was also a member of a Royal Commission investigating environmental pollution from 26 February 1970 . In 1951 Zuckerman published his paper summarizing the existing data both for and against the possibility of postnatal oogenesis . He taught at the University of East Anglia from 1969 – 74 , where he was involved in setting up a school of environmental sciences . He served as secretary of the London Zoological Society from 1955 – 77 and as its President from 1977 - 84 . Some of Zuckerman ' s achievements include becoming a pioneer in the study of primate behaviour . He is also credited for making science a normal part of government policy in the Western world . His more notable publications include " The Social Life of Monkeys and Apes " published in 1931 , and " Scientists and War " in 1966 . Zuckerman wrote two volumes of autobiography : " From Apes to Warlords " and " Monkeys Men and Missiles " . Zuckerman was knighted in the 1956 New Year Honours , promoted Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1964 New Year Honours , appointed to the Order of Merit on 23 April 1968 , and was awarded a life peerage on 5 April 1971 , taking the title , Baron Zuckerman , of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk . Family life . He met his future wife , Lady Joan Rufus Isaacs , daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Reading in Oxford . They married in 1939 , and had two children , a son , Paul , and a daughter , Stella . Stella Zuckerman died in 1992 , predeceasing her parents . Lady Zuckerman died in 2000 . His financier son , The Hon . Dr Paul Zuckerman , was the partner from 1994 - 2009 of Patricia Rawlings , Baroness Rawlings . Martha Gellhorn described Zuckerman in this way , in a letter written to his wife Joan in 1993 , shortly after Zuckerman died in London following a heart attack , aged 88 :