George Robert Carruthers

George Robert Carruthers (1939 to 2020) was an American space physicist and engineer who built ultraviolet cameras and spectrographs for spaceflight. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he built his first telescope as a boy and went on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor of science in physics in 1961, a master of science in nuclear engineering in 1962 and a doctorate in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1964. At the United States Naval Research Laboratory he patented an image converter in 1969 that recorded far ultraviolet spectra in a single exposure, and its first test flight in 1970 gave the first detection of molecular hydrogen in space. His Far Ultraviolet Camera and Spectrograph was set up on the Moon by the Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972. He entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and also worked to bring African American students into science and engineering.