National Defense Research Committee organization

Speed helped organize, prior to the war years, a rubber program on the synthesis of rubber for the National Defense Research Committee under Adams, which was eventually responsible for the production of rubber during the war. He was also drafted and helped on a research program for the Committee on Medical Research dealing with malaria research. 

Ecotoxicology. A series of experiments on the toxicity of mustard agent (H) and several degradation products to aquatic organisms were performed by the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (Buswell et al. 1944). In these experiments, the toxicity of mustard was related to the rate at which mustard went into solution. Mustard added to fish aquaria (25 °C) formed globules in the bottom of the tanks, and amounts equivalent to 25-50 ppm were required for lethality for fish. 

Buswell AM, Price CC, Prosser CL, Bennett GW, von Limbach B, James M (1944) The effect of certain chemical warfare agents in water on aquatic organisms. Rep OSRD 3589. National Defense Research Committee, Office of Scientific Research and Development, Washington, DC. 

Vannevar Bush is named head of the National Defense Research Committee. The Uranium Committee becomes a scientific subcommittee of Bush s organization. 

In addition to Army personnel, representatives from the following organizations were stationed at San Jose U.S. Navy, British Army, Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force, and the National Defense Research Committee. General Bullene described the project as a united effort of all these participants to secure certain technical data which would be useful in winning the war. Therefore he insisted that no distinction be made between nationals or organizations and directed that men be assigned to duties for which they were best qualified. Members of the NDRC, he... 

In tracing the work done by the OSRD (Office of Scientific Research and Development), the NDRC (National Defense Research Committee), and other agencies, the author used published works and unpublished technical reports. The Technical Library contains many OSRD reports on chemical warfare topics. It also has the excellent series of Summary Technical Reports of various NDRC divisions. These reports are in book form, but are not available to the general reader since they arc classified. Members of the OSRD published a number of books after the war, including James P. Baxter s Scientists Against Time and Irvin Stewart s Organizing Scientific Research for War. 

DOUGLAS J. RARER, National Research Council 8 05 RONALD BRESLOW AND MATTHEW V. TIRRELL, Co-Chairs, Committee on Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century 8 20 JOHN I. BRAUMAN, Co-Chair, Organizing Committee for the Workshop on National Security and Homeland Defense... 

The series of papers presented in this book represent the most comprehensive public discussion so far assembled about the very real threat to this nation from chemical and biological warfare (CW-BW) agents, the personal protection now available, and the research and development effort still needed to protect citizens adequately from such agents. The papers also represent a culmination of three years effort by the American Chemical Society s Special Board Committee on Civil Defense which organized the symposium at which these papers were first presented. 

Whitman s career in the post-war period was highly significant. At M.I.T. he directed the first study, in 1948, of the use of nuclear power for airplanes. On leave from M.I.T., he was on the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission and, successively. Chairman of the Research and Development Board of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Department of Defense, organized under United Nations auspices of the First International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, and Science Advisor to the Department of State. 

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