A New Science Adviser

Science adviser Lee DuBridge decided in mid-1970 that it was time to leave Washington. DuBridge had not been able to exercise the influence he had anticipated in taking the science adviser’s job, and was frustrated both by his lack of direct access to President Nixon and by cuts in science funding. A search for DuBridge’s successor was initiated in early summer. It was soon successful. President Nixon’s new science adviser would be Edward E. David, Jr., a 45-year-old engineer who had spent the prior 20 years of his career at Bell Laboratories, working in areas as diverse as computer science, undersea warfare technology, and developing an artificial larynx. David was the first presidential science adviser since the position was created in 1957 to come from an industrial rather than a university background. He was reported as being “very skeptical of the value of the man-in-space program,” feeling that “we should push the space program but in a very studied fashion.” David was sworn in as science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology on September 14, 1970. Russell Drew stayed on as David’s top staff person on space issues.5