| Authorised form of name | Woodruff; David Phillip (1944-2026); experimental surface physicist |
| Dates | 1944-2026 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Hyde, Cheshire, Northwest England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 12 May 1944 |
| Date of death | 2 March 2026 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Funeral: Harbury church, Church Street, Harbury, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom (19 March 2026) |
| Occupation | Experimental surface physicist |
| Research field | Nanomaterials |
| Crystallography |
| Synchrotron radiation |
| Surface science |
| Condensed matter |
| Physics |
| Experimental Physics |
| Activity | Education:
Manchester Grammar School (1954); Bristol University, BSc (1965); University of Warwick, PhD (1968); DSc (1983)
Career:
Began working at Warwick University (1965); Professor of Physics and EPSRC Senior Research Fellow, University of Warwick (1986); Max Planck Research Prize of Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung jointly with A M Bradshaw (1994); EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship (1998-2003); retired (2011); Emeritus Professor (2011-2026).
Awards/Medals:
Fellowship of American Vacuum Society (1994)
British Vacuum Council Prize and John Yarwood Memorial Medal (1998)
American Vacuum Society Medard W Welch Award (2000)
Institute of Physics Mott Medal and Prize (2002) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 18/05/2006 |
| Age at election | 62 |
| OtherInfo | Phil Woodruff was one of the country's leading experimental surface physicist. He was noted for his imaginative development of techniques for the investigation of surfaces, especially for the quantitative determination of surface structure, and with particular emphasis on synchrotron radiation. His groundbreaking innovations were taken up by other groups around the world and he himself has applied them to characterise surfaces and their atomic and molecular adsorbates with great precision. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor Phillip Woodruff FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/phillip-woodruff-12556/; last accessed: 27/04/2026]
University of Warwick, Department of Physics, Prof. D. Phil Woodruff FRS, [URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/staff/academic/woodruff/; last accessed: 27/04/2026]
Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing, Awards, Awardee Interviews, Interview: D. Phillip Woodruff, 2000 Medard W Welch Award Recipient, Interviewed by Ted Madey, 2000, [URL: https://avs.org/awards/awards/awardee-interviews/d-phillip-woodruff/interview/; last accessed: 27/04/2026]
University of Warwick, Department of Physics, Tribute to Professor D. Phil Woodruff, FRS [URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/staff/phil_woodruff/; last accessed: 27/04/2026] |
| Code | NA9241 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/2006/43 | Woodruff, David Phillip: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/006390 | Woodruff, David Philip | July 2006 |