George Robert Carruthers (1939–) was the first black to patent an image converter for detecting electromagnetic radiation, on November 11, 1969. Born in Cincinnati, Carruthers graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in 1961 and a master’s in 1962. After earning a doctorate in physics from that university in 1964, Carruthers began working as a researcher for the U.S. Navy and later for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency. He received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement medal for his work as one of the two people responsible for the development of the lunar surface ultraviolet camera/spectrograph, which was placed on the moon in April 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission.