William Woodward (1916-1983) was an American physicist.
Woodward was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied at MIT and Columbia University before going on to receive a Ph.D. from Princeton University, where he researched infrared spectroscopy.
In 1943, Woodward went to Los Alamos to join the Manhattan Project. During his time there, he worked on the nuclear properties of fissile materials. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he joined a movement pushing for the international control of nuclear weapons. He was also active in the creation of the Federation of Atomic Scientists.
After the war, Woodward went on to teach at Cornell University, where he would remain for over 30 years, retiring as a professor emeritus.
Woodward died on April 22, 1983.