The President today announced that he will nominate David E. Mann, of Bethesda, Md., to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development). Mann has been Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Navy Advanced Systems Projects since 1973.
He was born in New York City on November 4, 1924. He received a B.S. in 1944 from the City University of New York and an M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota and Harvard University.
From 1951 to 1966, Mann served as a physicist and Chief of the Molecular Spectroscopy section at the National Bureau of Standards. In 1957-58 he received Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships for study abroad.
He joined the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1966 and in 1967 became Deputy Director of the Ballistics Missile Defense Office there. In 1968 he became the first Director of the new Strategic Technology Office.
Mann joined the Department of the Navy as Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Navy Advanced Systems Projects in 1973. In 1974 he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal by the Secretary of Defense.
Jimmy Carter, Department of the Navy Nomination of David E. Mann To Be an Assistant Secretary. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/243237