work_institution birth_place citizenship image_size nationality field birth_date residence article_title name alma_mater
lockheed martin boeing ball aerospace manhattan , kansas united states 250px usa physics september , 1943 united states robert a. woodruff
 robert a. woodruff kansas state university university of illinois university of denver
robert a. woodruff

robert a. woodruff -lrb- september , 1943 -- present -rrb- 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 -lrb- 1967 -- 1970 -rrb- , apollo-soyuz -lrb- 1970s -rrb- , galileo -lrb- ~ 1980 -rrb- , sirtf and mips -lrb- 1970s-1990s -rrb- , and hubble space telescope instruments -lsb- 1977 -- present -rsb- -lrb- ghrs , stis , costar , acs , cos , wfc3 -rrb- ; jwst -lrb- 1995 -- 2000 -rrb- , kepler -lrb- mid-1990s -rrb- , tpf -lrb- 2001 to present -rrb- , and destiny -lrb- 2003 -- present -rrb- .
he has had one or more instruments flying continuously in space since the early 1970s .
mr. woodruff has over 45 years experience designing optical systems for united states space program missions .
he has made significant contributions to projects ranging from skylab , nimbus , apollo-soyuz , galileo , sirtf/spitzer , microgravity science , the hubble space telescope -lrb- hst -rrb- , and next generation space telescope -lrb- ngst -rrb- , terrestrial planet finder -lrb- tpf -rrb- , beyond einstein , exo-planet detection , kepler , as well as others .
he has wide and varied experience in the definition of optical space-borne telescopes and instruments .
his technical specialties are optical physic , optics design , and optical system engineering .
he has served in various technical roles in optical design , system engineering , system test , and system calibration in the development of more than 20 flight hardware instruments , so one or more of his designs have been operational in space continuously for nearly 40 years .
among his accomplishments , two activities standout : 1 -rrb- he helped fix the hubble space telescope spherical aberration flaw and 2 -rrb- he conceived and generated the optical concept and design for the kepler mission .
he is the author or co-author of well over 25 published or presented papers .
he is also an associate of center for astrophysics and space astronomy -lrb- casa -rrb- of the university of colorado in boulder , co. .
recently he retired from lockheed martin as a technical fellow in the position of chief scientist for optical systems .
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 .
