Robert Simpson Woodward

An American scientist and teacher, born in Rochester, Michigan in 1849. He attended the University of Michigan, where he received a degree as a civil engineer. In 1890, having previously served as assistant astronomer to the US Transit of Venus Commission, and astronomer to the US Geological Survey, he was appointed assistant in the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. Other posts included a mathematics professorship at Columbia University and the presidency of the Carnegie Institute (1905-1920).

During World War I he was active on the Naval Consulting Board. His research covered a broad field and he0 wrote papers on the mathematical theory of the earth, and mechanical conditions of the earth’s mass and interior. He invented the “iced bar and long tape” method of establishing the base line in surveying by triangulation. He died in 1924.