Erich BlochNSF
Erich Bloch, who stood at the helm of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1984 to 1990, died on November 25 at age 91. From humble beginnings in a Swiss refugee camp, Bloch’s illustrious career in science management took him from the upper echelons of IBM to the helm of NSF, where he advocated for science during the Reagan administration.
“He was probably the best government manager ever, certainly at NSF,” Gordon Bell, one of Bloch’s former colleagues at the agency, told Science.
After losing both of his parents in the Holocaust, Bloch survived the war in a Swiss refugee camp and immigrated to the United States in 1948 when he was 23 years old. Just four years later Bloch started working for IBM where, ...
