Government Scientist - United States

United States

In the United States, the employment of scientists by state and federal governments was, like in the U.K., affected by the Second World War. President Roosevelt first created the National Defense Research Committee under Vannevar Bush. This was then expanded to the Office of Scientific Research and Development, also led by Bush. The OSRD employed scientists on a contract basis, with the OSRD as client and individual scientists as contractors. Scientists were contracted to research (through study and experiement) a specified subject, without constraints as to method, and to issue reports to the OSRD.

After the war, scientific research was continued by agencies such as the Office of Naval Research established in 1947, which again employed scientists as contractors. Scientific research was published in the normal way. The Atomic Energy Commission, established in 1946, and the National Institutes of Health, established in 1930, also paid scientists for scientific research, and were major sources of government research funding.

The National Science Foundation was eventually established in 1950. Defence research was explicitly excluded from its charter, even though Dr Bush had originally envisioned the NSF as including that as well. The armed forces established their own research departments, such as the Office of Ordnance Research for the Department of the Army, established on the campus of Duke University in June 1951.

U.S. local, state, and federal governments also employ scientists directly. The federal government employs them in departments such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, and the Public Health Service. States and cities employ scientists in similar roles, including at fish and game commissions, parks, aquariums, arboretums, and museums; and at agencies such as environmental inspection agencies, crime laboratories, and public health monitoring agencies.