Solly Zuckerman
Solly Zuckerman, Baron Zuckerman OM KCB FRS[1] (30 May 1904 – 1 April 1993) was a British public servant, zoologist and operational research pioneer. He is best remembered as a scientific advisor to the Allies on bombing strategy in the Second World War, for his work to advance the cause of nuclear non-proliferation, and for his role in bringing attention to global economic issues. He served as Secretary of the London Zoological Society from 1955–77 and as its President from 1977-1984.wiki
"In 1960 he became Chief Scientific Adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence, and in 1964, with the advent of the Wilson administration, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government.
"In these appointments, partly due to the force of this character and intellect and partly through a wide range of social and political contacts, he exercised a remarkable, and, as some people thought, disproportionate influence on the military and strategic policies of the Government. He had a temperamental horror of nuclear weapons and an intellectual distrust of the mental processes which lay behind the current concept of nuclear deterrence; and it is generally believed that he declined Harold Wilson's suggestion that he should be appointed as Minister of State at the Foreign Office with special responsibility for arms control and disarmament. Later he was to collaborate with his close friend Earl Mountbatten of Burma in the drafting of a speech on nuclear weapons which was much misrepresented by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as an endorsement of their cause. He was, however, never an advocate of unilateral disarmament.
"Even after he had ostensibly left public life in the 1970s, he continued to operate powerfully behind the scenes, with an office in the Cabinet Office and access to a succession of prime ministers and senior civil servants. His books on strategy, Scientists and War (1966) and Nuclear Illusion and Reality (1982), together with his autobiographical work From Apes to Warlords (1978), were essential reading for strategists, both professional and academic." [1]
