War and Engineering Careers
This major global conflict in the early 20th century increased demand for engineers in trench warfare, communications, and chemical development?
What is WWI?
This 1957 event spurred a massive increase in U.S. science funding and educational reform.
What is the launch of Sputnik?
He served as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project.
Who is J. Robert Oppenheimer?
This acronym stands for Penn’s interdisciplinary Cold War-era research lab.
What is LRSM (Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter)?
Engineers helped design and improve this technology used to detect enemy aircraft, which played a major role in WWII
What is radar?
This act of 1862 helped fund land-grant colleges to teach agriculture and mechanical arts.
What is the Morrill Act?
This famous physicist co-wrote a letter to Roosevelt urging nuclear research.
Who is Albert Einstein (with Leó Szilárd)?
This federal agency provided 40% of LRSM’s annual budget.
What is the Department of Defense (DoD)?
This program trained engineers and scientists to meet wartime needs and offered free technical courses, including to women.
What is the Engineering, Science, and Management War Training Program (ESMWTP)?
This foundational postwar document by Vannevar Bush argued that science should be a central concern of the federal government.
What is “Science: The Endless Frontier”?
This July 1945 test was the first successful detonation of a nuclear bomb.
What is the Trinity Test?
This Penn building had no opening windows and featured glare-reducing thermopane glass.
What is the LRSM building?
The nickname for WWI that reflects the heavy reliance on chemical engineering innovation
What is "The Chemists' War"?
DARPA’s creation of this discipline at universities helped address materials bottlenecks during the Cold War.
What is Materials Science?
This petition circulated by scientists urged the U.S. not to use the bomb on Japan without warning.
What is the Szilárd Petition?
This Penn professor served as Vice Provost for Research and directed the Nano-Bio Interface Center.
Who is Dawn A. Bonnell?
During WWII, this type of government-funded training allowed engineers to gain new technical skills without paying tuition, helping fill urgent national needs.
What is free technical training or wartime technical education?
After WWII, this term described the network of military, academic, and industrial institutions shaping research agendas.
What is the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex?
This report recommended using the bomb on Japan without prior warning.
What is the Science Panel’s Report to the Interim Committee?
This Cold War concern led DARPA to push for materials science research at universities.
What is the fear of a materials bottleneck during the space race?