Philip Woodward

Philip Woodward is a British mathematician, radar engineer and horologist. He has achieved notable success in all three fields. He also is the retired Deputy Chief Scientific Officer of the British Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA)

Achievements in mathematics and engineering

Philip Woodward's career in the Scientific Civil Service spanned four decades. He was responsible for one of the UK's first electronic computers (TREAC) followed by the UK's first solid state computer (RREAC). He is the author of the book 'Probability and Information Theory, with Applications to Radar'.

During World War II, Philip Woodward developed a mathematical beam-shaping technique for radar antennae, which was later to become standard in the analysis of communication signals. His principal achievement in radar was to evaluate the ambiguities inherent in all radar signals and to show how Bayesian probability can be used as part of the design process to eliminate all but the wanted information the echoes might contain.

In 1956, Woodward’s work on radar information theory led Nobel Prizewinning physicist John H. Van Vleck to invite him to give a postgraduate course on random processes at Harvard University. In Professor E. T. Jaynes’ posthumously published book, 'Probability Theory - The Logic of Science' (Cambridge University Press 2003), he recognized Woodward as having been 'many years ahead of his time' and as having shown 'prophetic insight into what was to come' in the application of probability and statistics to the recovery of data from noisy samples. In the 1960's Philip Woodward's computer software team in Malvern provided the Royal Radar Establishment with the world's first implementation of programming language ALGOL 68, and provided the armed services with their first standard high-level programming language for the small military computers of the day.

His academic posts have included Honorary Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham and Visiting Professor in Cybernetics at the University of Reading. When in 2000 the Woodward Building was opened by Sir John Chisholm at DERA (now privatized as QinetiQ), guests were given complimentary clocks as souvenirs of the occasion and of Philip Woodward's horological interests.

In June 2005, the Royal Academy of Engineering gave Woodward its first Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing him as an outstanding pioneer of Radar and for his work in precision mechanical horology.

Achievements in horology

In retirement Philip Woodward wrote another classic book, 'My Own Right Time' (Oxford University Press, 1995) fondly known as MORT, a record of his passion for horology. Along with many other topics, MORT describes in detail the design of his clocks, including his masterpiece “W5”.

Woodward contributed dozens of articles to horological periodicals over more than 30 years. From his experience as a mathematician and analyst of complex systems, he has made major contributions to scientific horology, including the definitive analysis of balance springs and much work on the properties of pendulums. In 2006 the British Horological Institute published a hard-cover collection of 63 articles with new notes by Dr. Woodward. The collection, “Woodward on Time” (Taylor-BHI 2006) became instantly known as "WOT". It was very well-received.

W5 clock

“W5” was built in a small workshop with the simplest of tools, but displays an elegance of concept and design rarely seen in the history of the science. It was acclaimed by Jonathan Betts, the Senior Curator of Horology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich as “the nearest approach to perfection by any mechanical timekeeper not employing a vacuum chamber.” Woodward built even the case, assembling it with intricate but invisible secret mitre joints.

The eminent horologist Anthony Randall carried on a long series of timekeeping trials of W5, showing unprecedented accuracy over periods of more than 100 days. Although the clock was widely celebrated, and Dr. Woodward published a series of ever-more-detailed articles on its construction to encourage others to carry its ideas forward, no one completed another clock like it for more than twenty years. Finally, in 2006 the Australian clockmaker David Walter (now of Buellton, California) succeeded in making a highly skeletonized version that while quite different in details, closely followed the basic Woodward design.

Personal

Woodward was born in 1919. He lives in Malvern, Worcestershire.

References

Information on Woodward’s Civil Service career from Royal Academy of Engineering press releases and from conversations and correspondence with Philip Woodward. Alan Heldman quote from the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors’ Horological Science Newsletter. Anthony Randall quote from his introduction to “Woodward on Time”. This article originally compiled by Bill Taylor, ASC.