Oxford Instruments plc is a United Kingdom manufacturing and research company that designs and manufactures tools and systems for industry and research. The company is headquartered in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, with sites in the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, and Asia. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Sir Martin Francis Wood, CBE, FRS, HonFREng was a British engineer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Oxford Instruments, one of the first spin-out companies from the University of Oxford and still one of the most successful. He created this business out of his research into magnets, and went on to build the first commercial MRI scanner, an invention that has saved millions of lives throughout the world.