Evaluator

To succeed former M.I.T. President Karl Compton as chairman of the Defense Department's Research and Development Bureau, President Truman last week picked another M.I.T. man and longtime associate of ailing ex-Chairman Compton. His choice: 49-year-old William Webster, a vice president of the New England Electric System.

More an administrator than a scientist, Nominee Webster is an old hand at controlling the explosive combination of scientists in government. A graduate of the Naval Academy (1920), he took a master's degree at M.I.T., served six years in the Naval Construction Corps before he resigned to work for the New England Power Association. Later he served as chairman of the Military Liaison Committee, whose job is to keep the Pentagon within hailing distance of atomic developments, became a consultant for the Joint Research and Development Board, military ancestor of the RDB.

In his new job, Webster will be responsible for testing and evaluating such new weapons and new techniques as guided missiles, rocket-firing submarines, bacteriological warfare. His most crucial responsibility: the hydrogen bomb.

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