The company was founded by Sir
Martin Wood in 1959, with help from his wife Audrey Wood (Lady Wood) to manufacture superconducting magnets for use in scientific research, starting in his garden shed in
Northmoor Road,
Oxford, England. It was the first substantial commercial spin-out company from the
University of Oxford and was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange in 1983. Further innovations included the development of active shielding, whereby fringe fields hazardous to pacemaker wearers, causing difficulty and expense in siting, were virtually eliminated. Oxford Instruments was not able to capitalise on these inventions itself, granting royalty-free license to
Philips and
General Electric whilst developing a joint venture with
Siemens in 1989: Oxford Instruments sold its 49% shareholding to Siemens in 2003. Andrew Mackintosh was appointed CEO in 1998. He was replaced as CEO by Jonathan Flint, who later became president of the
Institute of Physics, in 2005. Ian Barkshire, who had spent much of his career with the company, took over as CEO in 2016. In November 2019, the
History of Science Museum in
Broad Street established a section on instruments made by the company. The company was the target of a takeover approach by
Spectris in 2022: Spectris eventually terminated its interest due to market uncertainty. Richard Tyson joined the company from
TT Electronics and was appointed CEO in April 2023. In June 2025, the company agreed to sell its quantum-focussed subsidiary, NanoScience, for £60 million. The sale of a business at the cutting edge of technology was not well-received by the market and led to a sharp fall in share price. ==Acquisitions and divestitures==