The Naval science of Albert Beaumont Wood, O.B.E., D.Sc.

A.B. Wood's career in Naval science spanned a period of nearly fifty years, from the early days of WWI to the time of his death in 1964. After graduating from Manchester University with a first class honours degree in Physics he seemed destined for a distinguished career in academia. But with the U.K. becoming deeply embroiled in war, he felt dissatisfied with the cloistered academic life. Instead, he became one of the first two scientists to receive an official appointment with the Admiralty under the newly formed Board of Invention and Research, which, two world wars later, would become the Royal Naval Scientific Service. Thus it was that A.B. Wood began his celebrated research into underwater acoustics, about which little was known at the time. Many of his technical achievements were made at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, although, shortly before his death, he spent a year at the U.S. Naval Electronics Laboratory (now SPAWAR) in San Diego. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for dismantl...