Robert A. Woodruff

Robert A. Woodruff (born September 1943) is an American physicist who is known principally for having designed and worked on a wide variety of instruments for space telescopes. These include Skylab (1967–1970), Apollo–Soyuz (1970s), Galileo (~1980), SIRTF and MIPS (1970s-1990s), and Hubble Space Telescope instruments [1977–present] (GHRS, STIS, COSTAR, ACS, COS, WFC3); James Webb Space Telescope (1995–2000), Kepler space telescope (mid-1990s), TPF (2001 to present), and Destiny (2003–present). He has had one or more instruments flying continuously in space since the early 1970s.

Woodruff has over 45 years experience designing optical systems for United States space program missions.

PATENTS

• U.S. Patent # 5,898,529 dated April 27, 1999. “Deployable Space-sed Telescope” • U.S. Patent # 5,420,681 dated May 30, 1995. “Modular Multiple Spectral Imager & Spectral Imager”. • U.S. Patent # 4,391,525 dated July 5, 1983. “Interferometer”. A Michelson Interferometer that is unchirped and inherently insensitive to mechanical perturbations.

Works R. Woodruff, B. Woodgate, C. Ludtke. "Optical Design of the Advanced Camera for Surveys, a Third Generation HST axial science instrument", Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3356, p. 249, Kona, (1998).